Ocean's Tides
by Mangaguitar96
Summary: It was supposed to be a summer of ever lasting memories. A summer they can all enjoy before they went to college. Levy didn't expect to get whisked away into this situation. Neither did she expect Merpeople to exist. Modern/Mermaid au Rated M
1. Chapter 1

Author's note: Ok, here's a new series I've had in my vault for sometime so this was to be rated T but I decided t change it to M because I haven't written a lemon in God knows how long and it's going to be a heck of a lot different from the other Mermaid stories you've read on here. Also, next week won't be a chapter, I need to do some more catching up; but I truly hope you all enjoy it! **I don't own Fairy Tail.**

* * *

 **Ocean's Tides**

 **Rated M**

 **Chapter 1: Summer Vacation.**

 _"Ocean is more ancient than the mountains, and freighted with the memories and the dreams of Time."-H. P. Lovecraft_

The scenery before Levy continued to pass by her quickly as she sat in her best friend's pick up truck and waited to arrive at her best friend's beach house. Yes, beach house. Levy McGarden's best friend Lucy Heartfillia was wealthy as wealthy could get. And this summer, her and a few of their friends were going to spend the entire summer at Akane, the local beach town.

"Excited Levy?" Lucy suddenly asked to try and diffuse the long silence. Levy McGarden, a girl with wild light blue hair, huge honey brown eyes and pale skin looked at her fair skinned, large chested, blonde best friend who's attention was on the road that was ahead of them.

"Yeah," Levy admitted "I'm looking forward to it. I've been dying to get out of town for the longest time."

"I know," Lucy giggled "I could tell by that longing gaze you give out when you read an adventure book." Levy looked at her best friend in both shock and embarrassment; was it that obvious?!

"I-I don't do that!" Levy blushed. Lucy bursted into laughter at that moment.

"Yes you do! I could tell you really want an adventure!"

"Can you blame me? It's the same thing everyday for me. Get up, eat breakfast, get changed, school or work, it gets boring!" Levy let out a groan and let her head hit the back of her car seat.

"Well, this summer vacation should be able to get your mind off of all that. Plus, you'll get to try that new surf board Jet got you for your birthday."

"I've been looking forward to use it for quite sometime!" Levy admitted "I read a lot of books on surfing so this should be awesome!"

"And who knows." Lucy smirked devilishly "You might meet _The One._ " Levy's face turned beet red at that statement.

"T-that's jumping the gun a little bit!"

"I can imagine you now, walking on the beach during a sunset with him, kissing, getting wild under-"

"LUCY!" Lucy laughed at Levy's reaction.

"I'm teasing Levy. You have to let me do that every now and then you know." they soon arrived a two story house that was across the street from the ocean and pulled into it's driveway. The moment Levy stepped out of her best friend's truck, the scent of the salty sea air hit her nostrils immediately, as if to greet her.

"Oh! Smell that fresh sea air!" Lucy said in awe and twirled around her beach house's driveway "I can get used to this!"

"It's definitley different from freshly cut grass.." Levy admitted while getting out of the car and grabbing one of her bags from the back.

"Hey girls!" a voice called out from the house. The girls looked to find a Sakura haired boy in a red shirt, tan cargo pants and flip flops coming down the stairs on the porch; this boy was Natsu Dragneel, Lucy's boyfriend of three years "Ready for the summer?"

"You have no idea." Lucy groaned while dropping her bag "First thing tomorrow, I'm going on the beach!"

"Come on girls," Natsu said while helping them get their bags into the house "Gray and I were gonna start beer pong! Better hurry up before he and Erza turn it into a drinking contest..." smiling at the thought of that, the girls raced into the house, unpacked their stuff and partied that night.

* * *

The next day, Natsu, Levy, Lucy, a young man with pale skin and bluish black hair, a young woman with a large chest and scarlet hair and two men, one with orange hair and one that was very overweight were heading to the beach.

"Ah!" Lucy said while stretching "Nothing like the beach to start the summer off right huh?"

"That's for sure!" Natsu said while setting up his beach umbrella, once he finished he looked at the bluish black haired man and a devilish smirk appeared on his lips "Gray! I'm gonna kick your ass at volleyball!" The dark haired boy named Gray gave Natsu a look to ask him if he really was serious or just not too bright.

"Dream on flame boy." The dark blue haired boy called Gray replied "Volleyball is my thing!"

"I think we're better off going into teams." The scarlet haired woman interuppted, shocking the two boys.

"Seriously Erza?" Levy laughed.

"Why not? Teams of two. Boys vs girls. Lucy, you're with me." Erza grabbed the busty blonde and made her way to the area where they would play volleyball. Levy watched the four begin to play their round of volleyball in delight before she heard her red headed friend Jet clear his throat.

"So Levy..." Jet suddenly said to Levy "You're going to try out your new board today?"

"Yeah!" Levy smiled while patting the board she was holding "I've been practicing my balance, studying books on surfing, I'm ready for this!" Jet smiled at Levy's words and watched as she made her way to the waters and began to surf, but she stopped in her tracks.

"What's that?" Levy asked curiously.

"What's what?"

"That thing over there! I think it's turtle!" she ran over to the moving object and found and a green sea turtle caught between plastic rings, trying to get out of it's perdiciment.

"Oh my God." Levy said in shock. She kneeled down, held the turtle in her hands and stroked the turtle's shell as if to calm it down and it seemed to do the trick. She took one of the plastic rings, gently held it between her fingers and studied it.

"These damn litterbugs." Levy grumbled as she continued calming the poor creature down. Knowing she had to do something, she looked to Jet "Jet, do you have your Swiss Army knife?"

"It's in my backpack." Jet admitted.

"Go get it, I need to let this little guy free before it this thing kills him." obliging, Jet ran to his backpack and soon came back with the Swiss Army knife. He handed the knife to Levy and she began to cut the pieces of plastic that the sea turtle was caught in. Once she got the plastics off, the turtle shook around to show it's thanks before Levy let it go back into the ocean "Bye little buddy!" Levy waved. she dusted herself off and looked at Jet.

"God, what I would do to those who litter! We have one ocean and it's not meant to be a trash can!"

"What can I say Levy." Jet shrugged "No matter what, people are going to do it. We can't force them to stop." Levy gave Jet a hard glare and then let out a sigh.

"I guess your right." she said "Only thing we can do is try to keep it clean." she was about to say something else when she suddenly turned around and looked at her surroundings; she could've sworn there was someone watching her. But as she continued to look, there was no one there.

"Are you ok Levy?" Jet asked which spooked her out of a trance like state.

"Y-yeah. I'm fine I thought someone was watching me. I guess I was just imagining things." she let out a laugh while rubbing the back of her neck "I'm going to go surf." after that statement was made, Levy took her surfboard and made her way to the ocean.

Levy jumped into the ocean and began to paddle her way to the farther out parts of the ocean. Soon enough, she came face to face with a giant wave and rode the wave. Even though she was just a beginner, Levy seemed to have grasped the idea of surfing pretty good. She wasn't into the heavy tricks like her friend Jet was doing just yet; but that will come with time.

"This is awesome!" Levy screamed at the top of her lungs while hitting another wave. Jet, who was right along side her looked at her with a smile that was full of love. It was no secret that Jet was in love with Levy. Back in their tenth grade year, he asked her out but she turned him down. He was heartbroken of course; but he wasn't going to let it get him down. As Levy reached another wave, enjoying the cool sea air and the warm sun, she spotted something- or someone was sitting by some nearby rocks.

It was a muscular man with tan skin, long black hair and what appeared to be piercings on his face, ears and upper arms. But there was one thing about this man that caught Levy's attention the most; he had no legs. He had a tail! A gray colored tail! Levy's eyes widened at the sight of this man. Was she truly imagining things or was this reality? The man looked back at her with a hard glare. Levy stared at the merman with no fear or shock, just pure curiosity and amazement. As they continued their staring contest, Levy suddenly lost her balance and fell off her board and the wave, crashing into the ocean. She soon washed up on shore with her surf board, safe and sound.

"Levy!" Jet screamed. Levy looked up and found her friends running over to her in concern.

"Oh my God! Are you ok?!" Lucy asked.

"I-I'm fine." Levy coughed.

"What happened out there?" Natsu asked with curiousity.

"I saw a man by the rocks!" Levy pointed out to the rocks "But he had-" she stopped herself when she realized the man was gone and there was only the pile of rocks he sat on "a tail..."

"A tail?" Erza asked "Like, a monkey tail?"

"No! Like a Mermaid tail! Only for a guy! I-I saw Merman!" her friends looked at her in confusion, concern and as if she was insane. Right then and there, Levy realized how crazy this sounded.

"Levy," Lucy said kneeling down "are you sure you ok?"

"I am!" Levy pouted "I swear I saw a Merman!"

"Levy," Droy said concerned "Merpeople don't exist."

"Droy's right Levy." Erza added "They're just myths and legends that had been passed down from generations to generations."

"But-" Levy tried to say.

"Levy," Lucy knelt down to her friend and put her hand on her back "are you sure you didn't imagine it?"

"I didn't! Just why won't anyone believe me!" she let out a frustrated sigh "You know what? Forget I said anything." at that moment, Levy decided to go back to her surfing to let off the steam her friends created. Leaving them all in a stunned silence.

* * *

A few hours into their beach day, Levy was still surfing and couldn't get enough of it. She was becoming comfortable enough to perform a few tricks. Lucy was watching as Levy came back into the shore on her board, taking a quick breather and looking at her friend.

"I'm glad you're having fun Levy!" Lucy smiled. An awkward silence formed between the two. Since their argument earlier, things have been pretty bad and hasn't gotten any better. Levy was still convinced she saw a Merman "Hey listen, we're going to make a quick stop at a fast food restaurant and come back. Do you want to come along?"

"No thanks." said Levy "I'm on a roll here, I don't want to stop."

"Ok Levy." Lucy said cautiously "It's your choice. We'll be back in fifth-teen minutes." with that said, Lucy, Natsu, Gray, Erza, Jet and Droy left to get dinner while Levy continued surfing.

* * *

She hit a few waves, catching her breath here and there and doing her best at her newest hobby,trying to perfect a trick she learned in one of her books. After multiple tries, Levy couldn't seem to get this move right. She took a deep, deep breath and began to make her way to the next wave. Levy began to "climb" her way to the top of this large wave that was making it's way and soon, she was at the top. Balancing as best as she could and soon getting the hang of it. As Levy continued her surfing, she began to wonder about the Merman she saw earlier that day.

"Was I really imagining all that?" she asked herself out loud "I mean, mermaids and mermen are just kids stories. Mainly told by drunken sailors in the 1800's. Maybe I should apologize for my outburst when they get ba-WAAAHHH!" not paying attention to what was happening, Levy lost her balance and fell off her board, crashing into the next wave and falling flat into the ocean.

Levy woke up in the ocean, deep in the waters, tasting a little bit of that salty sea water and realizing that she plunged under the waters. Levy began to swim up for air but realized she was getting nowhere; her board got caught in a nearby rock pile during the fall and to make it worse, Levy couldn't reach her ankle that was attached to the board. She tried her best to reach for the board, pulling, tugging and everything she could do all while trying to keep whatever oxygen she had left. She pulled, tugged and tried undoing the safety harness that was attached to her foot, just when she was so close to getting it, she felt her body unable to take the lack of oxygen and released some of her air supply. Her vision began to black out at that very moment. Was this it? Was this the end? Oh God, she had so much going for her! College was beginning this early fall, she just graduated high school and was top of her class, she was just starting her summer, it couldn't end like this!

As Levy looked around this place that would seem to be the final space of her death, she saw a dark figure speed pass her. She turned her head slightly and tried to get a glimpse of what passed her. A shark maybe? Oh great, if she was going to get eaten by sharks, best it be now than having her corpse eaten by seagulls. As Levy tried to get a glimpse, she felt something working at her foot. She looked behind herself and was probably certain the lack of oxygen was now getting to her, because the Merman she saw earlier was cutting the safety harness off of her ankle with a knife. Levy watched in amazement as the Merman who was using the knife made from what appeared to be broken seashells somehow fused into a strong, sturdy blade cut through the rope. When the harness was finally cut off, the Merman grabbed Levy and pulled her close to his chest. Her consciousness was beginning to fade more and more but then, she felt a hand lift her chin.

Levy's listless eyes looked into the deep red eyes of her rescuer and watched as he leaned in and locked his lips onto her's. She didn't feel air go into her system but instead a sense of warmth that she never felt before in her entire life. Levy could feel an odd energy going through her body but she still felt woozy. The Merman released her from the kiss and began to swim away with her before Levy's consciousness faded away to black.


	2. Chapter 2

Author's note: Dun dun dun! I know, the first chapter was eating you all away, but I hope you all love this one! I know I was going to take this week off with the story, but I'm in a really good mood today and by popular demand, I'm going to post the chapter and take **_next week off with Ocean's Tides_** (Dragonborn will still be on regular schedule) anyway, enjoy!

* * *

 _"Unlike a drop of water which loses its identity when it joins the ocean, man does not lose his being in the society in which he lives. Man's life is independent. He is born not for the development of the society alone, but for the development of his self."- B. R. Ambedkar_

 **Chapter 2: Stranger Tides**

She lied on a bed that was provided for her. Her head ached, her body felt heavy and she could barley move. Levy took a breath and felt relief go into her aching lungs. The more she breathed, the more of her consciousness began to return.

 _Ugh..._ she internally groaned _what happened to me?... Last thing I remembered I was drowning..._ as her last memory came back, Levy slowly opened her eyes, her vision was blurred and the room was spinning; but eventually, her vision cleared and the room stopped spinning. She blinked a few times to adjust and found herself staring at a deep, ocean blue ceiling that seemed to be made from either coral or a volcanic like substance. Levy turned her head and saw a desk with a chair that seemed to have been made with recycled wood,giant clam shells and twine.

There was a bookshelf in the corner of the room made from old wood and seemed to have had a multitude of books that were water-logged. The room was tranquil she could say, but she wondered how in God's good name did she even get here? As Levy's eyes wandered around the room, she noticed something- well, two things; she noticed a starfish lounging around on the wall and air bubbles coming through a hole in the wall. Since when the hell did something like this happened?! It was impossible! She sat herself up and swung her legs over the bed, or so she thought. Levy's eyes buldged out of her skull when she looked down at her body. Instead of her milky white, skinny legs she was so used to looking at every moment of her life, an orange colored tail took their place.

The scales were bright and shined in color, like a goldfish's but seemed more distinct. Her tail was fan-like and seemed to have been transparent. It was large and felt heavy when it flapped. Levy began to shake in fear, her eyes widened in terror and she tried to say something; but her tongue felt tied and the words refused to come out. Instead of asking herself how it was possible, she let out a blood-curdling scream. Levy used her arms to back herself away from the edge of the bed as if the tail were to disappear if she did this and banged into the wall behind her. She held her blanket that she was provided tightly and closed her eyes. Levy always remembered that if she had a nightmare as a child, she would close her eyes for five seconds and wake up in her bed, safe and sound. If she did the same, right now, maybe she'd wake up back at the beach house in her bedroom and will head downstairs to enjoy a nice night in and make up with her friends.

She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. She began to take some slow, deep breaths and count to three.

 _One... two...three._ she slowly opened both her eyes, she looked at the lower half of her body and realized the tail was still there. She let out another scream that would've triumphed over the last scream.

 _ **Bang!**_

Levy was startled by a sudden sound that came from the outside of the room.

"O-Oi!" a gruff male voice screamed outside "You awake?!" the owner of the voice barged into the room Levy was being held in and she let out a gasp of shock.

The person who barged into the room was the merman that she seen earlier that day; the one that was making her question her sanity.

"I-It's you!" she blurted out. He looked at her, bewildered out of his mind from her sudden sentence.

"Me?" he pointed at himself.

"Y-you're that merman I saw earlier today!" The merman blinked owlishly before changing his face into what appeared to be his usual mug.

"Your point?" he asked.

"My friends wouldn't believe me!" she flustered "My God! It was a nightmare trying to convince them you exist! Now I can show them proof!" he crossed his arms in a questioning manner to her words.

"And how the fuck are you gonna do that?"

"I'll go to them right now and show them!" the Merman cackled at her sudden announcement, leaving Levy confused.

"You think you can just waltz over to them with me? Take a look at the tale ya got! Yer literally a fucking Mermaid now!" Levy became cognizant of his words and realized he was right. She was a mermaid now and she wasn't even close to being aware of what she was capable of. She looked up at the Merman who haunted her most of today, unable to speak before finally coughing out the words she needed to say.

"W-Who are you?!" Levy blurted out "And why am I here?" the Merman smirked at her question.

"Name's Gajeel." he introduced "And I turned ya into a Mermaid for a fucking reason." Levy sat there for a moment before a theory came to mind.

"Y-you're not going to make me into your bride are you?" the Merman named Gajeel looked at Levy puzzled.

"Ya nuts lady?! I ain't even thinking about marriage! Reason your here is because you're perfect for the job!" Levy was astonished by what this Merman had to say about why she was here.

"T-the job?" asked Levy "What job?" Gajeel sighed and looked at the Mermaid.

"I ain't gonna get too into detail until ya meet my old man." Gajeel grumbled "Fuck, I don't even know if I should've even dragged ya into this in the first place." her cheeks puffed up in a puffer fish like manner and she crossed her arms.

"Well maybe you shouldn't have! I have a life you know! I got college coming soon, I have friends and family, so change me back this instant!" he blinked for a moment before letting out another odd cackle.

"Gihihihihihii!" he laughed "You ain't too bright aren't ya Shrimp?"

"E-excuse me?! I'm not a shrimp!"

"Compared to me you are! Literally no smaller than a fucking prawn!" a growl escaped Levy's lips when she heard his mocking words.

"Anyway Shrimp," he told her after wiping a loose tear from his eye "I can't change ya back. Even if I could, I couldn't here." Levy's mouth became agape at his words.

"W-what?!" she exclaimed "Why?!"

"Two reasons. One: we're several hundred feet under water and far away from the shores. Takes two hours to travel to the lands. So if I do it here, you'll drown." Levy blinked when she heard that and realized he was right "And two: The spell doesn't work like that anyway." again, Levy's mouth became agape.

"W-what do you mean?" she asked.

"The spell lasts for two weeks. And it wears off _**if**_ you're on land before sun down on the final day. If you fail to make it on land by then, yer trapped as a Mermaid for life."

Her blood ran cold and her heart stopped the moment he spewed those words. However, when he presented that loop-hole, she became determined.

"Well then I'm leaving!" she told him "I have no plans of staying here!"

"I hate to break it to ya but you ain't going anywhere for a while." Gajeel pointed out.

"W-what?! Why?!" he swam closer to her to the point he was nearly

"Ain't you forgetting? I saved your miserable life a few hours ago! You would've been floating there, dead if I didn't cut ya free and put you under the spell. You owe me." once again, Levy knew he was right. She owed this Merman she just met her life and had to repay the debt.

 _"Gajeel!"_ a intercom like voice rang out. Levy was spooked from the sudden noise and began to frantically look around; where did this voice come from? Gajeel swam to the desk in the room, opened one of the draws and revealed a conch shell like communication system _"Gajeel are you there?!"_

"Tch." Gajeel tsked "I'm here Lily. The hell you want?"

 _"It's not what I want."_ the voice that belonged to the one called Lily replied _"It's your father. He just found out about your little "guest" and wants you and her to come to the Throne Room right away."_

"Fuck! Seriously?! Can't he mind his own business?"

 _"What you did_ _ **was**_ _his business! He's not happy nor is he in a patient mood. Bring her into the Throne Room immediately."_

"Tch. Fine." he put down the communication device and looked at Levy with a cold glare "Come on, you're with me." he swung open the door and waited for Levy to begin swimming by his side to the Throne Room.


	3. Chapter 3

Author's note: Chapter 3 ready to rock and roll!

* * *

 _"Every time you dive, you hope you'll see something new - some new species. Sometimes the ocean gives you a gift, sometimes it doesn't."- James Cameron_

 **Chapter 3: The King of the Sea.**

They swam down the long hallway, making their way to the throne room to discuss things with Gajeel's father. Gajeel was swimming at a fast pace, trying to make it to the Throne Room so he could deal with his father's henpecking. Just as he was halfway there, he noticed he was swimming alone. He stopped and turned around to see Levy, struggling to swim. Her tail was flapping around wildly, forcing her to swim up and down like a goldfish that lost all control of it's tail. He continued to watch this pathetic display before rolling his eyes and making his way over to her.

"Gotta be fucking kidding me." he groused. He glided his way over to Levy and grabbed her forearm, stopping her from swimming.

"Yer making a complete idiot out of yourself!" he exclaimed **.** Her tail began to float up but with a quick whip she got it back down.

"It's not my fault!" Levy pouted "I don't swim like this! You grew up without legs your whole life, so swimming like a fish is a no brainer to you!" she continued her struggle with swimming which caused Gajeel to pinch the bridge of his nose with his index finger and thumb in an annoyed manner. Knowing she wasn't going to stop, Gajeel forcefully grabbed her tail, which startled the newly formed Mermaid.

"Your formation is all wrong." she looked at him with surprise and then suddenly felt him gently position her body in a plank like position, guiding her arms to go in front of her view.

"The trick to swim is pretty fucking simple." Gajeel explained in a surprisingly kind manner "Float on your stomach in a straight-line." unsure what to say, Levy did what she was told "Now, hold your arms and shoulders still and press your chest into the water. Keep your core tight while ya do!" Levy did what she was told and began to dip her chest into the water "Now, release and press your hips into the water at the same time you bring your chest up." Levy did what she was told and successfully managed to swim like a Mermaid.

"I-I did it!" she squeaked "I can swim like a Mermaid!"

"Good. Now c'mon, my old man ain't a patient fish. His barnacle brains is probably gonna send the fucking guards after us." nodding in agreement, Levy began to use her new techniques to use and make her way to the Throne Room with Gajeel.

* * *

Outside of the Throne Room, a large Merman with remarkably dark skin, a crescent shaped scar near his left eye, a green colored tail, a graying small beard and a large sword strapped to his back was next to a Mermaid with fair skin, long blue hair, a blue tail, large breast covered with a large seashell bikini top were swimming around impatiently. The moment Gajeel and Levy arrived, the two Merpeople looked up.

"Gajeel-kun!" the Mermaid called out "There you are! What took Gajeel-kun so long?" Gajeel pointed at Levy nonchalantly.

"This surface dweller over here don't know how to swim." he commented.

"For the record I can swim." Levy defended "But I couldn't swim like you and your friends here." the two Merpeople looked at her with their mouths agape when Gajeel called her a 'surface dweller'.

"Is this the human you transformed?" the dark skinned Merman asked.

"Sure is Lily." Gajeel replied.

"Gajeel-kun's father is fuming." the Mermaid explained "Gajeel-kun wasn't supposed to use the Transformation Spell. Especially on a human!"

"The fuck you want from me Juvia?!" outburst Gajeel "She was drowning and... I figured she could help us." the Mermaid exchanged glances with the Merman before turning their attention to Gajeel.

"You really better have a good explanation for why you think this human can help us." the Merman called Lily replied "From what I just saw, your father is not amused. If you don't have a good explanation for your actions, he'll possibly let you spend a week in The Abyss."

"Fuck, seriously?!"

"Yes." the Mermaid called Juvia replied "He's that angry. Transforming a human into a Mermaid is forbidden in our culture. Gajeel-kun knows this!"

"W-wait!" Levy interrupted "It's forbidden?!"

"I'm afraid so Miss..." Lily tried to coax a name from her.

"Levy." she replied.

"Levy. Nice to meet you, I'm Pantherlily. But yes, our culture has the ability to transform a human-being into Merpeople with a simple spell. But in truth it's forbidden. In fact, all contact with the Human World is forbidden."

"Why's that?"

"Because our worlds can never truly coexist." Juvia explained "Humans do nothing but pollute our world with their waste and hunt our creatures for experiments or food. Juvia by the way."

"Well this one is different." Gajeel reassured about Levy "And I'm gonna show it to my old man." he pushed his two friends out of the way before forcing Levy to help him with the Throne Room doors.

* * *

The large detailed doors were pushed opened with all the strength they could muster before making their way into the room. It was elephantine in size and was decorated with statues of mermen and mermaids, paintings of what appeared to be multiple generations of Mermen, a carpet that was made of woven seaweed and a small set of stairs where a throne carved from pure coral sat. Sitting on the throne was a Merman that obviously was not amused with Gajeel. From what Levy could see, he was older. Obviously in his mid to late fifties, probably entering his sixties. He had tan skin, long black hair that seemed to have been beginning to gray, piercing red eyes, a dark gray tail and bodily piercings on his body. He wore a silver colored crown on his head and carried a silver colored tridant. He sat on the throne in a lazy manner but had a stern look on his face that showed his true emotions; he was fuming at Gajeel.

"Son." the Merman unemotionally greeted Gajeel.

"Old Merman." Gajeel replied. Gajeel's father's face twisted to something even more foul.

"Is that how you treat your father?!"

"Tch, well excuse me _King Metalicana_! I'd like to-"

"Wait a minute!" Levy interrupted. She looked at the Merman who rescued her with shock "Your father is a king?!" Gajeel looked at her awkwardly before replying.

"Duh. He's the king of the whole damn ocean."

"So... you're a prince." he smirked and protruded his chest proudly.

"Damn right I am! Next in line for the throne!"

"Your fucking ass may not be after I'm through with you!" Metalicana hollered at his son "You brought this human into our kingdom, made her into one of us and exposed the existence of our kind!"

"Well I got my reasons!" defended Gajeel "The reason I was at the surface in the first place was I wanted to see what we were up against! And the reason I made this human into a Mermaid was..."

"Was...?" Metalicana rotated his wrist as if to tell his son to continue on.

"I saw her rescue a green sea turtle." Gajeel admitted "It was trapped in human waste and she set it free from the stuff. Moment I saw that, I thought maybe she could help us." a pregnant silence dispersed through the room before Levy said something.

"Is that why I'm here?" she asked "All because I helped a sea turtle?"

"Well I was planning to kidnap you into helping us;" Gajeel confessed "but then you started to drown so I used that as a reason to get you here." Levy's cheeks puffed out in annoyance to his original plan. Seeing this scene before him Metalicana cleared his throat.

"Exactly, what makes you think she can help us?" Metalicana objected. Gajeel shrugged.

"Just a hunch."

"Just a hunch?! Gajeel, do you expect us to be able to get out of this situation by 'just a hunch'?!"

"I'm keeping her here until this damn spell wears off! She's a human for fuck's sake! If anyone knows what humans are up to, it's her!" Metalicana let out an angered growl before sighing in annoyance.

"If you really think this human can help us;" Metalicana sighed, no longer able to argue with his offspring "then I have no choice but to allow her to stay. However, I want you to keep an eye on her, she is a human-being and I am not one hundred percent that this human can be trusted. You are to keep her close to you at all times. If she does anything that will put our people in danger, it will be on your head." his son begrudgingly accepted his father's terms, knowing it was better to accept this than deal with a week in The Abyss "We will have an extra bed set up in your room Gajeel incase this human decides to do some night swimming... I better not hear anything going on between you two in the middle of the night!" A blush broke out on both their faces.

"A-are you crazy?!" Gajeel flustered "Like I'd sleep with a human!"

"Yeah, I want to settle down with a _**HUMAN MAN**_." Levy added "Nothing against you guys but I have no plans of staying here long!" Metalicana nodded.

"Agreed." nodded Metalicana. He tapped his Trident on the stone floors and two Merpeople entered the room "Set an extra bed for our 'guest'. And set it in our Prince's room." without questioning their king's words, they automatically left to set up Levy's bed "Dinner will be ready within an hour... hope you like shrimp." Gajeel let out a cackle at his father's words. Levy shot a glare at the prince before looking at Metalicana and being escorted out of the room with the prince.


	4. Chapter 4

Author's note: Not much to say except enjoy! Ps, I'm taking next week off to work more on the chapters. I'm finally getting some more time to myself and I want to take full advantage of it.

* * *

 _"I feel as though I have lived many lives, experienced the heights and depths of each and like the waves of the ocean, never known rest. Throughout the years, I have looked always for the unusual, for the wonderful, for the mysteries at the heart of life."- Leni Riefenstahl_

 **Chapter 4: The Mission.**

The doors to Gajeel's bedroom opened and revealed a grand bedroom. Levy swam into the room and was surprised at what she saw; at one side there was a grand bed with large pillars and a canopy covering the bed and giving the Prince of the Seas the privacy he desires at moments. On the other side, another bed was found and was built similarly to Gajeel's, but the only difference was it was more feminite in appearance. The room was a dark color and seemed to have been made from a combonation of ground coral, sand and a hard cement like substance used to keep it all together. There was a desk on both sides of the room, each meant for the person who's side of the room that was, a large vanity mirror on Levy's side, a set of swords on Gajeel's and a closet which now had tops and accessories for both the Prince and his guest.

"Amazing." said an awe inspired Levy "But, how is it you were able to get everything to stay on the seafloor? Water is supposed to be anti-gravity. Everything here should be floating to the ceiling?" Gajeel stiffled a laugh at her question.

"You humans don't know shit about us don't ya?" Gajeel asked.

"No." Levy jeered "In fact, I didn't even believe your kind existed until earlier today."

"As you're aware of minnow, we use magic in this world. After years and years of our crap floating up, we decided to use magic to solve the issue by placing an enchantment on the whole damn kingdom. Why none of this garbage ain't floating and why we're having this conversation. Gihi."

"So you mean to tell me that everything here is magic and no science?"

"The fuck's science?" that told Levy everything she needed to know. A knock was heard on the door and it caused the two Merpeople to look at the door.

"Enter." Gajeel called out. A Merman swam into the room, wearing armor with an odd emblem on it that seemed oddly familliar to Levy. She knew that symbol but where she's seen it, she couldn't remember "The hell you want?" the prince snapped at the Merman.

"Sire," explained "Your father had requested me to retrieve you and your "guest". Dinner has been prepared."

"Ugh finally. Thought that damn chef was gonna make me starve. Come on land-dweller, we got dinner waiting." he then took her by the wrist firmly and waded through the waters to the dining hall.

* * *

The Dining hall was a large, aquamarine colored room that could fit up to fifty people-err _Merpeople._ The room was adorned with multiple paintings of different eras that Levy knew to have been lost at sea, or were portraits of each of the Royal Family members. Levy noticed the largest portrait was that of Metalicana which showed who the current ruler was. She noticed there wasn't one for Gajeel, which she immediately deduced that it was because he hasn't taken the throne yet therefore he doesn't have a painting. There were multiple chairs that each were made from fine wood and a large chair adorned the end. Surrounding the large chair were others around it's size but not as elegant or as large. Levy theorized that this was for the Royal Family. Gajeel swam over to his normal seat and began to sit but noticed Levy still in the spot she was.

"The fuck you doing over there?" Gajeel asked her "You sitting with us." she blinked owlishly to those words.

"Y-you want me to sit with you?" she parried.

"Do I look like I bite?" he jeered "Get over here! I ain't having you all the way on the other side for this!" hesitantly, Levy swam over to the table and took the chair across Gajeel. The large set of doors opened, his highness and two guards swam into the room and stood guard as the king sat in his chair. A chef came in and began to serve the meals to the Royal family. Levy looked at her plate when it was placed in front of her. It was a gold colored plate that was garnished with seaweed, shrimp, lobster and small bits of clam. She felt hesitant to eat it since she was in front of Royalty; but after seeing how the king ate his meal, Levy decided to try and copy him. She took a bite out of the shrimp and was amazed by the flavor of the food. It bursted with a mouth watering melody of spices, the taste of the sea and spices from the Human World-wait, the Human world spices are in this?

"Excuse me." Levy suddenly said after swallowing her bite "But, I just noticed a few spices that I'm familiar with back in my world. How did you get them?"

"I expected you to recognize a few of the spices we use in our cuisine." Metalicana admitted "Indeed, we do use some human goods for our ways of life. We have a few of our people who chose to spy on the Human world for us. Every now and then we'll willingly take supplies from our world and trade it for Human source goods. We may not like the human world, but we see that a few of their goods are beneficial." she nodded in understanding before taking another bite of her dish. The doors swung open to Juvia and Pantherlily who swam into the room to join the dinner.

"Sorry we're late." Pantherlily sighed "We had to return the plans back to the War room."

"Understood. Just make sure the War room is heavily guarded."

"It was when I left it."

"Excellent."

"Ummm..." Levy hummed "Pardon me your Highness, but if you don't mind, I have a few questions to ask." The king put his fork down and looked at the "guest".

"Speak your mind girl." he spoken. She took a deep, deep breath and spoke her mind.

"What am I here for? What is this mission I have to help you with?"

"Think we should tell her now, son?" the king turned to his son.

"May as well." Gajeel shrugged "Our way of life is in deep shit. There's a factory on the shores that have been dumping into our oceans." Levy's mouth went agape at those words.

"T-that's terrible!"

"It's mainly run off that has been polluting our eco-system. We've dealt with run-off like this before; but it seems different some how."

"Different how?" pryed Levy.

"We don't know." Lily added "But it's killing our plankton at a rapid rate and our marine life is growing ill. We even have a few of our people in medical care they've grown so sick." Levy felt her gut wretch at those words, she didn't know these Merpeople; but hearing they were growing ill over something her kind was doing to them, she had to help in some way "The name of the culprit behind the pollution is a company called Tartaros." Levy's eyes reamed the moment she heard those words.

"Wait, Tartaros?! As in Tartaros Environmental Corporations?!"

"That's the one." King Metalicana confirmed.

"They're a big environmental company that's supposed to be _against_ harm to the environment."

"Well they sure as hell ain't." Gajeel replied "They've been dumping their shit all over the fucking place."

"M-my God!" Levy jarred "I can't believe this! I seriously thought they were something good!"

"Juvia can assure you they aren't." Juvia assured "Juvia witnessed them dump strange liquids into the ocean and just see it as if it was their trash can."

"The reason I brought ya here shrimp," elucidated Gajeel "You'd know more than us about the human world. You'd know what the fucking crap they're throwing into the ocean is." Levy felt hesitant at first but she sighed and gave her answer.

"I'll do it." Gajeel smiled at her words.

"What I hoped to hear." the five finished their meals before the king let out a yawn.

"I think it's time for me to retire." Metalicana admitted "Good night all." he looked at his son and then said "Good night you Posiden-saken brat."

"G'Night ya old sea dog." Gajeel grumbled back. Metalicana looked as if he wanted to say something more but he held his tongue and returned to his room. Eventually, Juvia and Pantherlily decided it was best to retire for the night, leaving Gajeel and Levy alone.

"Come on," Gajeel sighed "better hit the sack." he swam over to Levy and surprisingly pulled the chair back for her, causing her cheeks to turn a bright, bright, red. She got up from the chair and joined Gajeel in their swim back into their shared room. The two of them entered the room and made their ways to their separate beds. She opened the curtains to reveal gold colored fabrics that was a matching set of pillows and blankets. She tucked herself into the set and immediately felt like she was at home in those fabrics.

"Good night minnow!" Gajeel called out from his bed.

"I have a name you know!" Levy shot back.

"Well as long as your here, I'm calling you whatever the hell I want." Levy gritted her teeth to those words and was pretty startled when she heard snores rip through the water. Damn, did he fall asleep that fast?! As she tried to get comfortable enough to sleep, Levy began to remember something important; her friends. She's been gone for more than five hours and her friends were probably looking for her! Oh God, they were probably going nuts by now! What made it worse was that she didn't even reconcile with her friends. Their fight earlier today was probably the worst one she ever got into with them. If only she could tell them she was ok, if only she could tell them what she was involved in, if only she could show them her situation. Tears streamed down Levy's cheeks and she held back each and every sob that her body let out, she had someone sleeping in the room with her and she didn't want him to hear her cries. As she continued to try and breathe, her calming breaths eventually lulled her to sleep.

* * *

"LEVY!" Lucy hollered across the ocean "LEVY! WHERE ARE YOU?!" She was on her family boat with Jet, Droy, Erza, Gray and Natsu. They were steering the boat all over the area, calling Levy's name every few seconds.

"Lucy," Jet worriedly said "we've been at this for hours. Don't you think it's time we called the police?"

"No! She's out there! And Akane's police won't do anything unless she's been missing for over fourty-eight hours!"

"She's right." Erza sighed "For all we know, Levy could've wandered off somewhere or could be back at the house." as the boat continued to sail through the sea at night, something caught Gray's attention.

"Wait," he called out "the hell is that?!" he pointed out something on the starboard of the boat and everyone pulled out their cellphones. A flashlight feature on their phones were turned on and they shined the lights in the direction Gray was pointing in. There, they found a surfboard lying in the still water.

"Let's get in closer!" Lucy ordered. Natsu pressed a few buttons on the boat and soon, they made their way over to the surfboard. Gray pulled the board out of the water and they shined their phones on it.

"T-that's Levy's board!" Droy baffled "I recognize it anywhere!" Erza studied the board in a forensic scientist like manner and noticed something right away.

"The safety harness on this had been cut off by something." Erza announced "With a knife of some sort. This was no accident. Levy's out there and we have to find her." now knowing that their friend could be in some kind of danger, they made their way back to the surface while Lucy had two thoughts in her mind: Where was Levy and what if her friend was right all along?


	5. Chapter 5

Author's note: Special Thanks to SnowSisterbookworm who helped me out a bit with the writers block I was having when this chapter was being typed out! Hope you all enjoy this one!

* * *

 _"Global warming is the foreboding thunder in the distance. Ocean acidification is the lightning strike in our front yard, right here, right now."- David Horsey_

 **Chapter 5: Schemes and Information.**

An alarm clock rang through the air of a luxury apartment just when the sun was about to rise on that day. The owner of the clock's muscular arm rose up in a groggy state and slammed the alarm clock's on/off button. Ending the annoying _Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep!_. The young man befuddled his way out of bed and to his bathroom where he looked in the mirror. He was fair-skinned and had coal colored irises. His hair was black with an odd purple hue and ran down past the bend of his knees. He washed his face quickly before making his way to his closet to pick his clothes for today: A black suit with a purple shirt, black vest, black shoes and a white necktie. Once he was dressed he made his way to his bathroom once again to quickly brush his teeth and brush any knots out of his long hair. After adding a little hair moisturizer to his hair, he searched through his medicine cabinet for a hair-tie until finding a black hair-tie and placing his long black hair in a large ponytail.

Once he was ready to face the day, he made his way downstairs and outside to his black,luxury sports car that would show his status in this economy. He started the engine, backed out of the parking lot and making his way to his favorite donuts/breakfast shop. Once ordering his usual espresso (double shot with half and half) and an egg-white sandwich, he drove into the parking lot of an industrial looking building. He exited the car and looked at the building with a sadistic grin. In the eyes of the media, his company was protecting the environment; but they didn't know about this building...no one did except his most trusted employees and partners. The man walked through the doors of the building, reading a few important papers, drinking what was left of his now mildly-hot espresso and becoming bombarded with his workers.

"Good morning sir!" said a few of his men who were moving several large containers with unknown substances inside of them. He gave them small smile and nod before continuing what he was doing already. A woman wearing a grey suit with a pencil skirt, open-toed heels, long jade green hair, large breast and bird like features that actually enhanced her beauty instead of waterloo it made her way over to the CEO of this company with a clipboard at her side, a pen in her left hand and a smirk on her face.

"Mard Geer," she called out "good morning sir!"

"Ah, Kyouka." Mard Geer simpered "Good morning to you too. Do you have the paperwork for our future partnership with Grimiore Heart enterprises?"

"I do, and their on your desk waiting to be signed. We just got a new shipment of solar cells in at Tartaros' solar panel company and we recived a few shipments of run off waste and the unknown waste our scientists can't figure out."

"Just dump them in the ocean," he waved "like we do with the rest of the stuff. Some of it just keep testing. Might be useful in the future."

"As you wish." Kyouka complied "Sir, you also have an interview Friday with the local news station about how well our company is doing and what are plans for the future are."

"Really? Hmm... As long as I give them the whole 'We're going to try and keep our only planet safe.' facade up, they'll just eat into our hands."

"I'll agree to that." Kyouka pulled out her clipboard, put on a pair of cat's eyes glasses and began to write a few things down "I'll have Lummy and Keith get all the waste ready to be dumped around lunch time."

"Excellent. The more that waste is gone, the more it's out of my hair." with that said, the CEO of this large "Environmental" company left for his office.

Levy was swimming with Gajeel for a long distance for the past two hours. She could feel a burning sensation in her core muscles from all the swimming. She followed Gajeel closely, making sure not to be careless and fall behind. As they ascended to the surface, the sunlight soon became more bright and finally, the Merman and temporary Mermaid popped their heads out of the waters and took a gasp of air. Levy's eyes shut immediately because of the harsh sunlight. Once her eyes adjusted to the light, she looked around and felt so much joy that she was back in the surface world. Looking around, she could see the shores near by the cars on the streets driving by, children playing on the shore, Levy felt so happy to be back.

"Tch," Gajeel tsked "I don't know why the hell those humans are using those damn contraptions." Levy looked at him confused.

"W-what?" she splurged. Gajeel pointed at a car that passed by.

"Those things. I don't understand what the hell they are and why you humans use them."

"Oh! You mean a car! We use them to travel long distances and make our journeys shorter. Although they create pollution, scientists are trying to find a way for them to be less fouling. "

"I'll never understand you humans." he turned away from the shore and tugged Levy's hand "Come on, we ain't got all day." they swam father away from the beach area until they came across an industrial building with smoke tops fuming a putrid scented smoke, large pipes were draining liquids into the ocean at a slow rate.

"This is it." Gajeel told Levy. They swam to some nearby rocks and watched as a group of people walked over to the rocky coast with multiple container. A young woman with a black bob, school girl like clothes and an odd hairband that gave her bunny ears along with a necktie that had the fraction "1/16" on it was standing on the coast with several men.

"Fafafa!" she oddly guffawed "Ok boys, you heard Lady Kyouka's orders, dump all this stuff straight into the ocean!"

"You sure this is legal Lummy?" one of the workers sweated.

"How the hell should I know?" Lummy shrugged "I'm just doing what I was told. Now c'mon let's get dumping! Jackal is going to be here any minute and I just want to drool all over him. Now get moving! Fafafa."

Not arguing with the young woman, the men took the containers and began to dump them into the ocean. The substance was pink in color and the consistency was like sludge. The scent was ghastly and made Levy cork up. She held her breath as well as a few tears and was shocked when Gajeel held something in front of her. It was a tiny opened bottle that had a more pleasant aroma coming out of it. The essence was something of the ocean, a flowery scent that also had a him of sea salts, rose petals and other wonderful scents that Levy couldn't describe.

"Canceling Incense." Gajeel muttered to her "Ol' lady Porlyusica, the old Merman's medicinal adviser conjured it up. It's cause we had a feeling this shit was going to stink up to Posiedon's palace. We're gonna need a sample of that crap too." Levy's whole stomach dropped and her face turned green hearing those words.

She suddenly ran her hand over Gajeel's which activated a blush. What surprised her was when she felt him hold his hand and tighten his grip.

"I ain't gonna let ya just feel queasy." he told her "If it makes ya feel any better, I don't like the crap either. Scent is driving me up the fucking current." Gajeel suddenly pulled out a small vial "You're tinier than me. If ya can, try and get a fresh sample. Straight from the source." hesitantly, Levy took the bottle and swam her way over to the dumping site. They continued dumping the unknown substance into the ocean by the gallons and soon, Levy finally arrived to the place. She took the vial and hauled in a generous amount.

"Hey," a gruff voice suddenly said "The hell is that?" her breath hitched hearing those words.

"What's what?" questioned Lummy.

"Could'a sworn I saw and arm underneath the stuff. Lummy looked at the man questioningly before making her way over to where he claimed he saw the arm. Levy could feel her heart pounding wildly in her chest, ready to burst. As she scooted closer to the wall, she suddenly noticed that she was beginning to _change._ Her skin and hair began to change colors to match the colors of the rocky coast as well as her tail and her top; Levy was stunned.

"I don't see anything." Lummy suddenly spoke out "The fumes must be getting to us. Fafafa, let's go in and grab some lunch, we can finish it later." not arguing with that statement, the men left with Lummy which allowed Levy to let go of a breath she had no idea she was holding.

The moment she let go of that breath, her skin returned to normal color. She stared at her hands in surprise.

"Holy shit." she heard a gruff voice say. She became started and soon found Gajeel swimming right next to her "You can camouflage. Haven't seen that in years." Levy blinked at his words.

"C-camouflage?" she stuttered.

"Some Merpeople can do it." Gajeel explained "It helps in tight situations like what you were in. Though I gotta admit something."

"What would that be?"

"I'm surprised ya can use our fucking abilities. 'ccording to legends humans who turn into one of us don't get jack shit." Levy was stunned to hear his words and blinked owlishly.

"How is it I can use it if humans who turn into Merpeople normally can't?"

"Dunno. Maybe ya found a way to tap into it or ya talented." her cheeks turned a bright shade of red at Gajeel's compliment (if you can call it that) but she snapped out of her trance when Gajeel took the vial filled with the unknown substance and put a cork on the opening of the vial.

"But ya got the sample, now we can know what the fuck is going on here." Gajeel smirked "Good job minnow." he ruffled her hair surprisingly patted her back "Let's get outta here, just looking around this damn human world is making me sea sick." he began to swim away from the scene but noticed Levy wasn't swimming away with him; she was staring out at the nearby beach with a longing gaze.

"Hey! Ya coming or not?!" she snapped out of whatever spell she was under and looked back at Gajeel.

"Y-yeah!" she stuttered "Sorry!"

"You ain't thinking about swimming off are you?" he crossed his arms and gave her a serious glare.

"W-what?!" she pipped "No! Something else was on my mind that's all." unsure if he could seriously trust her, Gajeel shrugged, swam over and took her hand gently.

"Well you ain't got time for that." he told her "We gotta head back before we're spotted." understanding the situation (and not having much of a choice in it) she swam away with Gajeel back to his undersea home and still lost in her thoughts.


	6. Chapter 6

Author's note: not much to say, except enjoy!

* * *

 _"We provoke a shark every time we enter the water where sharks happen to be, for we forget: The ocean is not our territory - it's theirs."- Peter Benchley_

 **Chapter 6: Training and the First Strike**

"So you got a sample eh?" King Metalicana smirked. They were back in the throne room with the sample of the unknown substance from Tartaros with them. King Metalicana was sitting on his throne with a pleased look on his face. One of the guards made their way over to Gajeel and took the sample from his hands "I'll have Porlyusica look it over, knowing the old angelfish, she'll have our answers within a few days." as the guard swam away with the sample the two took, Levy looked at her tail for a brief moment before getting the gaul to say what was on her mind.

"Your highness," Levy suddenly spoke out "I was getting the sample that we acquired and suddenly, my entire skin blended in with my surroundings." The king's eyes became as wide as saucers when he heard that.

"Impossible..."

"Sure as hell ain't." Gajeel commented "Saw her do it with my own eyes."

Metalicana got off his throne and made his way over to Levy, with a look of utter disbelief.

"No land dweller turned Mermaid can use a Merperson's powers." Metalicana explained "How you were able to use our abilities I'll never know."

"M-maybe I am a Mermaid." Levy shrugged "Just don't know it." a silence spreaded across the room before father and son bursted into laughter.

"Yeah right minnow!" Gajeel cackled "If you really were Mermaid, I would'a sensed it the moment I spotted ya! You're a land dweller! No if ands or buts!" Levy looked at the prince of the oceans surprised but her expression changed. Her cheeks puffed out in an annoyed manner which for some reason made Gajeel think she was cute.

"So then why was I able to use your people's abilities if I'm not a 'real' Mermaid?" Levy questioned.

"Hmm..." Metalicana hummed "I guess it's a lucky accident. But if yer gonna be helping us, may as well learn to use them." he clapped his hands together "Gajeel! Yer teaching her how to use her powers." Gajeel paled in three winks when he understood that.

"Yer shitting me." he feed backed.

"She's your responsibility." Metalicana smirked "You wanted her to help us so yer training her." Gajeel let out a gruff sigh from his father's orders.

"Posideondamnit." he then looked at the land dweller with a serious expression "C'mon, you wanna learn how to be a Mermaid, ya fucking got it."

"Wait," Levy tried to protest "I didn'-" she was cut off when Gajeel gently took her wrist and forced her to his training area.

* * *

The training area was a very large range that showed it was worth it's title. Multiple dummies made from seaweed that were anchored down by old wood stood in place along with a punching bag, surprisingly a few weights, and a spot where they could spar.

"We Merpeople have a ton of abilities." Gajeel began to explain "Our Mermaids have the ability to use something called "Siren's Voice". It's supposed to let them do whatever the fuck they want by using our ancient songs or just deafen someone who pisses us off."

"The stories back in my world, Mermaids have been depicted to be able to sing." Levy admitted.

"Yeah depends on the Mermaid. Most of the ones I've met sound like a fucking sea hag." he suddenly turned to look at Levy "Ok land dweller, first thing yer learninin is watercontrol."

Levy tilted her head in an owlish manner at his words, suddenly what he meant hit her.

"Oh!" she corrected "You mean Hydrokinesis!"

"Whatever. Now, we have the ability to control the water as much as we want. Watch and learn minnow." he took his two hands and formed them into a position where one was over the other and the only thing between them was a foot of space. As Levy watched, she noticed a tiny vortex of water beginning to form in the space between his hands before it grew into a large form, and Gajeel tossed it at a dummy, destroying it in the process. Levy looked at the scene before her in amazement; she couldn't believe how powerful he really was "Your turn." she blinked for a moment.

"I-I can't!" Levy exclaimed "I-I don't even know how!" sighing, Gajeel made his way over to Levy and took both her arms. Levy felt her cheeks warm up from his sudden touch and watched as he guided her hands into the same position his was in earlier.

"Just focus your energy to that one spot," he explained "once you do, you'll see the shit happen." she began to do what Gajeel directed and started to notice the water beginning to swirl. Excitement began to fill Levy's veins when she witnessed it.

"I-I'm doing it!" she squeaked.

"Quit being excited and concentrate."

"Oh yeah." she continued to concentrate until an orb, similar to how Gajeel's was, but smaller. Once she was ready, she let it go and it hit another dummy, damaging it.

Gajeel gave Levy a nod to show his approval.

"Not bad." Gajeel shrugged "A little more practice and you'll get the hang of it, gihi." Levy took a deep breath and began to focus more of her energy on the orb and continued to practice on the dummys. Suddenly, she felt a brush of water hit her,it felt light and non offensive, when she turned around, she spotted Gajeel with an orb of trapped water in his hand, he gave her a playful smirk and tossed the orb up and down like a water-baloon; he was looking for a fight. Smiling, Levy decided to join in the fun by sending one his way. They continued these actions for a good ten minutes. Laughing, trying to get each other with the balls of water and dominate their opponent. Soon, Levy managed to sneak attack Gajeel, causing the Merman to stumble and fall on his back; but not without taking Levy with him, leaving them both in a suggestive position.

Levy looked up and found herself extremely close to the Merman. Their eyes met at this exact moment and they stared at each other. Levy could feel her cheeks begin to heat up from this moment and suddenly, she felt Gajeel gently place his hand on the small of her back. Her cheeks began to heat up even more from this action; but that changed when someone cleared their throat. They both looked to the entrance of the room where they found Panther lily, looking at them uncomfortably.

"Um..." he tried to word "I hate to interuppt you both..." Gajeel looked at Levy, quickly realizing what this looked like before tossing Levy off of him.

"The hell you want Lil?" Gajeel ridiculed.

"I came here to let you both know you have a new mission from his majesty. You're both to head back to Tartaros first thing tomorrow to sabotage a few things. We discovered pipes draining agricultural fluids into the ocean and need a way to end it."

"Alright fine." Gajeel huffed "Anything else?"

"That's it." Lily shrugged "Your father only wanted you to hear that message."

"Fuck, now I gotta find a way to get that shit out of the water and fucking stop it from fucking leaking..." at this point, Gajeel was grumbling to himself "Has that chef cooked dinner? Fucking starving." the prince swam out of the room and into the next.

* * *

The next day they left the palace Gajeel grew up in and made their way to the location where the pipes were reported. It was a shorter distance to travel; but it was something Levy instantly dreaded. Because when they arrived, the scent of the agricultural fluids became obvious. At first Levy thought she couldn't smell anything under water, but it seemed to her that as a Mermaid, all of her senses were intact- even sense of smell. The scent was a putrid odor, like a sweage plant and rotten eggs coated in skunk urine after it had an entire bowl of cottage cheese. Levy gagged and teared up at the scent, doing her best to cover her nose when she noticed Gajeel beginning to gag and cover his nose as well.

"The fuck is this shit?" he choked out.

"I-I'm not sure." she swallowed "But this needs to be taken care of right away."

"No shit. This puffer-fish crap is gonna kill all the fish in this area!"

Levy swam a little closer to the pipes (although she knew she was going to regret it later on) and noticed the way the pipes were set up. Tartaros used a very weak metal in order to get these pipes running, possibly copper or indium, and to make it worse, it looked as if it was welded badly.

"We can't back the pipe up." Levy told Gajeel "If we do, it will cause another leakage, maybe one even worse then what we see."

"So any better ideas shrimp?" he questioned while picking his teeth with a broken off sea urchin bristle. Levy began to ponder for a moment at what to do until suddenly, an idea hit her.

"Gajeel, follow me I got an idea!" hesitant, Gajeel felt he had no choice but to follow the land dweller as she followed the pipeline to where it was all coming from.

When they finally reached the destination, they stared at a large, strong pipeline made from stainless steel, lying on the ocean floor as if it belonged there. It was pumping the agricultural fluids into smaller pipes all over the area.

"Holy fucking Neptune." Gajeel astounded "Thing's fucking huge!"

"Exactly as I thought it would be." Levy sighed "But I'm not letting this bug me; Gajeel, how strong are you?" he looked at Levy with a questioning gaze.

"Enough to lift a few large boulders... why?"

"Do you think you can bend all the smaller pipes to where the liquids won't be able to get in?"

"Probably, why what are you thinking?"

"I'm going to use my hydrokenisis and back the larger pipe up." Levy confessed "I need you to block the pipes so that way nothing can get in. Once the larger pipe has no way to let it's contents out..."

"It has no choice but to go back to the source!" Gajeel smirked "Gihihihihi! Yer a genius!"

"Well, I do read a lot..." she blushed while scratching the back of her neck awkwardly.

"Ah! So yer a book manta! Gihihihi!" Levy was about to question what he meant but then realized this was an undersea term for 'bookworm'. She really needed to learn her undersea terms...

"Alright, I'm going to start. I don't know how long I have so go as fas as you can!" nodding Gajeel got into position "Get ready!" she took a deep breath, remembered what Gajeel taught her yesterday and began to back up the agricultural liquids in the pipe, creating a build up.

A piece of Levy was surprised this plan was actually working; but because of the fact the substance was also made of water, it made it easier for her. As she concentrated on the fluids, Gajeel worked away on the pipes doing his best to get every single one unable to spread more of the atrocious liquid in the sea. Once Gajeel was finished, he gave Levy a thumbs up which allowed her to let go of the agricultural fluids and watch their plan come to life. They suddenly heard a groaning sound and watched the pipe begin to rumble, all the liquids were returning to their original source. Gajeel suddenly grabbed Levy a bit harshly and gave her a noogie for her plan working.

"Gotta hand it to ya!" he smirked "Ya got a lot going on in that brain! Good job Levy!" at that moment, Levy's cheeks turned coral pink; he _actually_ used her name!

"T-thank you I guess..." Levy blurted out. When Gajeel finished, he began to swim in the direction they came in.

"Come on, the old Merman is gonna be fucking thrilled the moment he finds out we did it!" unsure of what to say, Levy made her way back with Gajeel to the palace.

* * *

Mard Geer sat in his provided lounge chair, wearing one of his typical suits, his leg crossed over the other, under a few hot lights while falsely laughing at a joke the reporter named Jason from the local news station interviewed him told. The interview had been going on for more than fifth-teen minutes and seemed to have been going well so far.

"So Mr. Tartaros," Jason continued "your company Tartaros has been doing a lot of eco-friendly related products since it opened up ten years ago. Why eco-friendly?"

"Our goal is to make sure the environment stays safe and clean." Mard Geer lied with a sweet smile "We only have one planet that supports life that we're aware of and we'll do everything in our power to make sure this planet stays alive as far as we can keep it alive."

"As we see in your profits, your solar panels are at an all time high! Do you have any more plans for the future of Tartaros?"

"Well," Mard Geer thought "We have been considering going into Hydroelectricity as of lately, we have top scientists looking into the benefits of it and-" he was interuppted when his cellphone suddenly rang. Mard Geer took a quick glance and noticed it was from Kyouka, he specifically told his employees before the interview not to call him while he was there unless it was an emergency. Having a feeling in his gut, Mard Geer looked at Jason "Excuse me for a moment." Jason nodded in understanding while Mard Geer got up, answered his phone and left the room.

"What's wrong?" Mard Geer asked into the phone, normally his demeanor would be more cold-hearted but he was in front of people, he still needed to show his false colors.

 _"It's the agricultural drainage sector sir."_ Kyouka explained over the phone _"It's been flooded."_

"W-what?! Are you certain?"

 _"Absolutely, I haven't seen anything this bad before. You need to see this for yourself, it's that serious."_

Groaning into the phone. Mard Geer hung up and made his way back to the interview.

"I'm sorry, I have to cut this interview short." he prevaricated to Jason "We just got in a new shipment of solar cells and something seems to be off with them. My assistant wishes for me to look into them further before we decide what to do with them."

"I undersand!" Jason nodded "But what you do is SO COOOL!" smiling a bit at Jason's words, Mard Geer waved goodbye and left in his luxury sports car.

* * *

He arrived at Tartaros half an hour later with a look of distaste and anger on his face. He removed his jacket revealing his white, button down shirt and firmly adjusted tie. Kyouka made her way over to her superior with a clipboard in hand and began to catch up to his pace.

"This better be good!" Mard Geer hissed at his assistant.

"It's bad sir." Kyouka admitted "I haven't seen anything like this before." they made their way to the Agricultural drainage room and when he opened the doors, Mard Geer's mouth opened. The machines that were draining the fluids were backed up and now the harmful toxins were flooding into the building. Clean up crews have began to shut down the machines that still pumped the harmful chemicals into the room as well as clean the room. Mard Geer began to feel something wet below his feet and spotted his several hundred dollar shoes, socks and pants growing wet from the liquids that were flooding the building.

"The hell is going on here?!" Mard Geer inquisited.

"The main pipe has been backed up." Kyouka explained "Somehow all the smaller pipes that have been connected have been bent to where they don't get any of the liquids, causing the pipe to back up."

"My God! We can't have this! How did this happen?!"

"We have no idea. We're going to investigate it as we speak." Mard Geer let out a large groan at this moment.

"Do you have any idea how much money this is going to cost?! Not only that, we have to cover our tracks and make sure the media has no knowledge of it!" he began to rub his temples from all the stress this was causing, there wasn't going to be enough alcohol in this world to help him right now.

"We'll get right on it sir." Kyouka nodded "We'll do everything to find the culprits."

"You better." growled Mard Geer "I'll be in my office. Bring me a bottle of scotch, my classical music album and some good news." nodding in agreement, Kyouka watched as her superior left the room, shoes and socks in hand and rubbing his temple in an annoyed fashion.


	7. Chapter 7

Author's note: Ok, this chapter is short, but a bit on the fluff side so enjoy! Ps, I wont be posting chapter 8 next week. I got a very busy week ahead of be (Birthday is on sunday and I got something coming up I can't reveal much until it's time)

* * *

 _"A woman's heart is a deep ocean of secrets."- Gloria Stuart_

 **Chapter 7: When the Heart Wails**

That night at dinner was a celebratory one. Once Gajeel told his fatherwhat had happened earlier that day to his father, Metalicana ordered a feast to have been had for Levy's actions. Throughout the feast, the Merpeople shoved loads of food into their mouths while Levy barley touched her food. She took her fork, poke and prodded her lobster and moved a piece of her clam in her seaweed salad.

"Something on yer mind there human?" Gajeel suddenly asked while swallowing down a piece of his dinner. She looked at the King and Prince while they looked back at her with a questioning glare.

"I-I'm fine." Levy swallowed "I-it's just-" she looked at King Metalicana "Your highness, I know I cannot leave due to the situation; but is there a way I can contact my friends and let them know I'm safe?" the king stared at his plate for a moment before letting out a sigh.

"I'm sorry." he explained "We can't let you have contact with your friends because it will cause danger to our people." Levy nodded in understanding before trying to eat her meal. Just when she was about to try, Metalicana continued what he had to say "There is a way however I can show you what's going on with your friends." Levy's eyes brightened at his words "After dinner I will show you. But now, eat." nodding in understanding, Levy began to scarf her meal down, now feeling hunger strike her stomach.

His Highness took Levy, Gajeel, Lily and Juvia to a room in the East Wing of the palace. Metalicana swam with two guards close to him and soon, they all found an old wooden door that looked worn and had seen better days. Metalicana knocked on the door only to have it answered quickly. The Merperson who answered was a beautiful Mermaid. She looked as if she was around the same age as Metalicana but in Levy's opinion, she looked very good for her age. Her hair was a beautiful sky blue-hued white. The style of her hair was medium length and ended at the center of her back, it was straight but curled at the end. Her skin was fair but beautiful and had feather like scales that appeared all over her body but mainly focused on her forearms. Her breast were large and held by on a clam shell top. Her tail was a similar color to her hair and fanned out in a beautiful manner. To Levy, she looked as if she belonged flying in the sky more than swimming in the sea.

"Ah, your Highness." smiled the Mermaid "What bring's you here today?"

"Grandeeny." the king nodded "I need to have a Mirror Spell performed."

Grandeeney looked at the king with astonishment.

"A Mirror Spell?" she asked "You rarely ever have them performed. For what purpose do you need it?"

"For her." Metalicana moved out of the way to reveal Levy who was right behind him. Grandeeney looked at Levy in surprise.

"The human everyone has been talking about; what brings you here dear?"

"I just want to know what my friends are up too." replied Levy in an uncertain tone.

"I see... Well you can all come in. Though, my sister won't be happy." she widened the entry way to her laboratory and allowed Metalicana, Levy, Gajeel, Lily and Juvia into the room. The two guards decided to stay outside to protect the room.

The laboratory was filled with multiple vials, chemicals, books and scents that were unusual to Levy's olfactory sense. Bookshelves were lined with books, scrolls and all notes that were written by the owners of this part of the castle. The sounds of the chemicals that the sisters were creating were filling the air as they boiled or simmered away.

"Porlyusica!" Grandeeney called out "We have company!"

"Damnit Grandeeney!" a Mermaid's voice called out "I hate visitors and you know this!" a nearby curtain that lead to another part of the laboratory was pulled back revealing another Mermaid. Compared to Grandeeney, this one was older looking, more reserved and seemed more of a secluded being. Her hair and tail were pink and she wore a buttoned up shirt with a red cloak; this had to be Porlyusica.

"What in Posideon's great abyss do they want?" asked the pink haired Siren.

"A Mirror Spell." Grandeeney retorted "The human girl staying with our Prince wants to know what's going on in the Surface World." Porlyusica gave her sister an inquisitioned look before letting out a sigh.

"We're running low of the ingredients. We need to go get more, so we can only show her for a short amount of time."

"How long?" Levy asked.

"Five minutes minimum. But I wouldn't hold my water, this spell can go on the fritz." she swam over to a nearby shelf that had all the ingredients she needed. A cauldron was in the center room filled with an unknown liquid that had dense fog coming from it. She poured the ingredients in an orderly fashion which caused it to hiss and simmer. Just when it was ready, she beckoned Levy over.

"Just imagine what you want to see." Porlyusica explained "And it will show you it."

hesitantly, Levy swam closer to the brew and cleared her head. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath and began to think of her friends. When that vision came to her mind, she began to hear the sound of sirens, people talking and the ocean's waves. She opened her eyes to see a vision coming from the cauldron; it was of the human world and a reporter talking to a news crew.

"We're here live at Akane Beach where the search for missing nineteen year old Levy McGarden." The reported explained to the camera "She was last seen here, testing out her new surfboard while her friends went to pick up dinner. One of Levy's friends is here tonight and is head of the search party." the reporter moved and revealed multiple people holding candles, praying for Levy to return home safely, a few people were searching the area in case of the worst. Levy recognized all the people there as former classmates, friends, family members of friends. It was then, the reporter revealed who the leader of this search party was: _Lucy._

"Miss Heartfillia," cross-examined the reporter "what can you tell us about the search so far?"

"We're just trying to bring our friend home." Lucy sniffled. From what Levy could tell, she had been crying for quite sometime "We found her board about two days ago and it looks as if the safety was cut off by a knife, so we know she's alive somewhere."

"Do you have any idea where she could be? Any family nearby?"

"No, Levy's parents died in a car accident four years ago, my father became her court appointed guardian so that way she wouldn't have to go through the Foster System."

"How do you know the safety was cut with a knife?"

"It's too clean of a cut!" exclaimed Lucy "We think something may have happened and now she maybe hurt!"

"Is there something you want to say to Levy if she's watching?" asked the reporter. Lucy took the mic and looked into the camera desperately "Levy, if you're out there please come back! We're all worried about you and just want you to come home! She-" before Lucy could continue, the spell wore off.

"I'm sorry." Grandeeney pardoned "We only had so much time to show considering the ingredients for this spell were low to begin with." Levy's face became emotionless after hearing Grandeeney's words.

"I understand." she replied a bit monotonely "I think I've seen enough anyway." silence spread across the room before she let out another sigh "I think I'm going to go to sleep, I've had enough for one day. Good night." she began to swim out of the room and made her way back to her shared bedroom with Gajeel, leaving everyone stunned.

Gajeel noticed Levy's state the moment she saw the vision and couldn't help but feel he took her, he expected no one to miss her and just all her stories about her friends were made up so she'd have an excuse to go home; but now seeing how many of her kind arrived to look for her, he couldn't help but feel as if this was all his fault. He suddenly felt a firm hand on his shoulder, he looked to find Lily looking at him sternly.

"Go talk to her." he told Gajeel "She's going to need someone right now." The Prince looked at his best friend with uncertainty.

"What the hell do I say to her?" Gajeel asked "This isn't something that seems easy ya know!"

"Apologize. From what I've seen, she still has some form of resentment towards you. She's starting to get comfortable, but I think a piece of her is still in denial of all this." at this point, he wasn't sure of what to say "Go to her." The Prince let out a sigh, waved good night to everyone and left to his room.

* * *

Levy was tucked away in her bed, her back towards Gajeel's side of the room, refusing to look towards that side. Her friends were worried about her. To the point they started a search party! She heard a door swing open and heard the sound of water moving. She felt the presence near her bed, watching her; but instead of disturbing her, she heard them swim away and go into the other bed, it was obviously Gajeel. She suddenly noticed the lights on Gajeel's side of the room go out. Things were silent for the next ten minutes which caused Levy to believe he may have fell asleep. As the minutes ticked, Levy began to think about her friends.

Just seeing how much they were going through right now made her wish she could have called them or something to tell them: _"Hey! I'm alive! It's ok! Although, I'm now a Mermaid until the end of the next week and a half. Otherwise I'm great!"_ She wished she could be there with them, she wished she could have told them everything going on. As these thoughts built up in Levy's head, tears began to pour from her eyes. The moment they began to pour, she hid under her blankets and tried her best to hide her sobs. Her tears streamed down her porcelain cheeks and became one with the ocean. Her body shook and her lip quiver as she tried to suppress her cries, but her attempts were futile. As she curled her body closer to her chest, she suddenly felt the blanket being thrown off of her. Stunned, she looked up to find Gajeel staring at her.

"You just gonna sit there and pretend ya ain't crying the whole fucking time?" he jabbed. Levy was hesitant to answer his question. A few sniffles escaped her body but then, she felt a pair of arms underneath her and lift her up off the bed, carrying her to the other bed and soon, putting her down on one of the sides of the bed. Levy felt as if she was in a stupor, shocked by Gajeel's actions. She watched as the Prince made his way to the other side of the bed and crawled into the bed with her. Levy was stunned and was unable to form a single word. Suddenly, Gajeel pulled her close to him and held her head with his hand "Just let it out." she stared at him with surprise, but her surprise disappeared the moment her lip quivered and she let out another sob.

Gajeel pressed her closer to his chest as she bawled on his shoulder. Her sobs filled the room as he did his best to try and comfort the human girl. Once this mission was over, he was going to make sure she got back on land, even if it killed him. Two hours had passed and Levy finally fell asleep. As she slept in the Prince's arms, he couldn't help but stare at her. She was cute for a human, he had to confess. He had no plans of marrying a human, he loathed them for how they treated his kingdom (even though they had no clue of his kind's existence). But he knew she was different some how; how he couldn't say. Just the fact that she cared about the ocean and was willing to help them despite the circumstances of how she got here. If anything, Gajeel hoped deep down he could keep her in his life in some way, maybe he'd send some of his people to watch after her when this was all over, or he'd find a way to keep in touch with her somehow. He felt content the moment he thought about this and soon, was lulled into a deep sleep... There was now eleven days left until the spell on Levy became permanent.


	8. Chapter 8

Author's note: Oooooh! Gajeel and Levy getting friendly? Well, let's see what goes on in this one!

* * *

 _"I hope for your help to explore and protect the wild ocean in ways that will restore the health and, in so doing, secure hope for humankind. Health to the ocean means health for us. "-Sylvia Earle_

 **Chapter 8: Preperations**

Mard Geer sat at his desk in his office with his head in his hand. A glass of whiskey was sitting on his desk half full with ice while a large bottle of usquebaugh sat next to the glass. He was staring at a report made by Kyouka about what had happened in the agricultural department yesterday and how much the damage was going to cost them as well as what it was going to take to keep it out of the public eye. How this entire situation happened, he'll never know. He did everything in his power to make sure the public never knew his company's true intentions and as far as he knew, they didn't know. It could've been something got in the pipes that shouldn't have and caused the damage... yeah, maybe that was it.

A knock was heard on the door which caused Mard Geer to snap out of his trance.

"Enter." he called out. The door swung open, causing a slight _creaakkk_ noise to fill the air. A set of heels clicking against the floors of Mard Geer's office floors. The woman who entered the room was in a purple women's suit, the shirt was unbuttoned and showed a large amount of her clevage, a pencil skirt that made it down to her knees. Her heels were open-toed and designed like sandals, showing her black painted toe nails and pale colored feet. Her hair was long and was close to the small of her back, black colored with a purple hue and a white hairband. Several large tattoos were all over the woman's body such as her arms and forehead but her coat and shirt covered the tattoos on her arms. This woman was Seirah, head of the Contracting Department, and she was carrying a lot of papers.

"What is it Seirah?" Mard Geer soughed. Seirah walked over to Mard Geer's desk with a fair-minded face.

"Kyouka-sama sent me." sighed Seirah "She wanted me to give you the papers on the damage and how much it's going to cost us." she placed most of the pile onto Mard Geer's desk.

"Why couldn't she provide me with this?"

"Kyouka-sama is currently talking with Franmalth in the Finance Department about how much this situation is going to cost us." Mard Geer let out a large groan.

"This entire situation is going to cost me a fortune!"

"Do not worry Mr. Tartaros, we will find a way. If you'll excuse me, Kyouka-sama and I are to have a lunch date." Seirah was about to leave the room with a pure smile on her face at the idea of a lunch date with her girlfriend, when she suddenly stopped in her tracks.

"Oh!" she remembered "I almost forgot!" she pulled out a manilla folder filled with papers that she was holding the whole time but forgot to hand to Mard Geer "Lummy's research on the unknown substance we found came back; you're going to find this very interesting." Mard Geer opened the folder and read the first paper, when he read a sentence that caught his interest, his frown turned into an flagitious smirk.

"Well then," he chuckled "what should we call this 'undiscovered, liquidated yet harmful substance'?"

"Tempester from the Extraction Department took the liberty of calling it 'Lacrima'. And apparently, there's more."

"There's MORE?"

"Apparently the company who had it picked up revealed it's found in a crystal form; but under a huge amount of heat, it can be liquidated." Mard Geer's malificent smirk grew wider at this information.

"Well then, looks like we should find this 'Lacrima'."

* * *

The palace was mainly quiet that morning, not a peep coming from any room. Levy was fast asleep in Gajeel's arms, slight snores and coos escaped her lips until a very loud snore stirred her from her sleep. Her eyes opened gently to see Gajeel sleeping exactly in front of her, his arms wrapped around her waist and were holding her tightly. Her cheeks began to grow a bright red from this predicament and began to try and squirm out of his clutch; but he was too strong. She squirmed and wiggled until Gajeel's eyes popped opened, staring at her. Levy blinked owlishly before her cheeks turned an even brighter red, Gajeel looked at her before releasing her from his grip, sitting himself up by his arms and then scratching his head.

"Morning." he grumbled.

"M-morning." she swallowed, trying to calm down from the predicament.

"You doin better?" inquired Gajeel. Levy's memories of the night before suddenly came back and her flustered emotions turned into a glum one.

"Y-yeah." she lied "I am." Gajeel moved himself slightly closer to Levy and stared directly at her with an expression Levy never seen before on him; remorse.

"Levy," he began "look, I'm sorry for dragging ya into all this. I know ya rather be out there with your friends doing whatever the fuck you humans do during this time of year. But I guess I wasn't really thinking about your needs. Moment I saw ya helping an animal of my kingdom, I just felt that you were perfect for this. I get if ya hat-"

"Gajeel, I don't hate you. Frustrated, yes- but no, I don't hate you." Levy sighed and sat at the edge of the bed.

" I do wish I can let my friends know that I'm ok;" she continued "but this is the laws of your people, and while I'm here I'm going to respect that law. Seeing that Tartaros isn't really the organization I expected them to be- now that I think about it, I'm glad I didn't start the monthly donations to them like I was planning. But since they aren't who I thought they would be, I want to help you all stop them. I just hope my actions could in some way make up for my people's actions for all these years. I forgive you Gajeel." smiling at her words, Gajeel impulsively pulled the small Human-turned-Mermaid into a tight hug. Levy was shocked at first but soon, she fell into the hug. As they continued their hug, Juvia suddenly busted through the doors of Gajeel and Levy's shared room.

"Gajeel-kun!-" she stopped herself when she spotted the scene between the Merman and human.

Levy suddenly noticed Juvia's presence and broke from the hug, blushing madly. It took Gajeel a minute to realize what was going on.

"I-is Juvia interrupting something?" Juvia cross examined.

"Hell no!" Gajeel screamed "We just made up!" Juvia squinted her eyes in a suspicious manner.

"You two weren't _mating_ were you?" Levy's cheeks turned even redder.

"N-no!" she squeaked "We just worked things out! Besides, I don't mean any offence but I don't know if Merpeople can even do it!"

"Actually,we can." Levy looked at Gajeel and blinked owlishly.

"Y-you can?"

"It's kinda like how dolphins do it if you wanna know the truth. Also I guess how humans do it too..." Levy noticed a slightly embarrassed look on Gajeel's face talking about this.

"Well, Juvia will have to forget this conversation happened." Juvia admitted "You need to head to the surface immediately! Tartaros sent boats and are going after fish!" the prince and Levy looked at each other in shock.

"W-What do you mean?!" Levy stuttered.

"Juvia doesn't know. They just got there and they're taking a huge amount of our fish. You need to get there as soon as possible! They're an hour away from shore!" not wasting a minute, Gajeel and Levy bursted through the doors and began to swim their way to the Surface World.

* * *

They swam at a fleeting pace, trying to get to their destination without a single minute to catch their breaths. Adrenaline pumped through their veins at a rapid rate and didn't seem to be stopping anytime soon. Eventually, sunlight could be seen and it it brought joy to both seeing it; they reached their destination. They popped their heads out of the water and took a deep breath of fresh, salty-sea air. Levy caught her breath at this moment, now realizing her adrenaline rush was ending. As they searched the area, Levy suddenly noticed several large boats.

"Look!" she iotaed.

On one of those large boats, a very large, bulky looking man with a sea captain's hat, sunglasses, a corncob pipe, seamen clothing and the face of a fish smiled, looking at the ocean. This man was Torafusar: head of Tartaros' Ecosystem Protection Dept. Torafusar pulled out a walkie talkie.

"Alright," Torafuzar called out on the walkie talkie "are all the rigs ready?"

 _"Bzzt. Ready on my end."_ replied the captain of the second boat.

 _"Bzzt. Same on my end!"_ added the captain of the third boat.

"Okay!" Torafuzar smirked "Let's get to work! Get as may fish as you can!" all the captains pressed a button activating the water mills going into the ocean, taking fish from the spots they were lazing in and being forced into a cube like pool filled with ocean water underneath the main deck. As the minutes passed, the pools were beginning to grow in numbers of fish.

"Those fuckers are taking the fish!" Gajeel growled.

"We need to find a way to put an end to it." Levy ordered "I'll try to hydro-kinetically move the fish to a safer location, you try to destroy the devices." Levy took a deep breath and dove into the water, making her way over to the school of fish. Gajeel swam over to the first ship and began to check out the mechanical work. Levy swam to a nearby school of fish and began to focus her energy. She created a large bubble out of pure ocean water, filled with a school of fish and slowly moved them away from the area. They were scared of course; but they knew Levy was here to help them. Once Levy dispersed the bubble, the school swam as far away from the ships as they could to a safer location.

* * *

Gajeel made his way over to the first boat, studying how the mechanism worked. When he started to notice there were less and less fish being brought in, a smug grin appeared on his face. Looks like Levy managed to move the fish to a safer place. As he studied the machine, he decided the best course of action for something like this was his brute strength. Mermen were known to be born with brute strength that could rival with human weight lifters- if not, make human weight lifters look as if they didn't lift to begin with! With brute force Gajeel ripped the mechanics that got the miniature mill going, forcing it to break and start breaching the system, he repeated this for the last two boats.

* * *

The sounds of gears creaking, something breaking and fish that were on the machine, plopping back into the ocean and swimming away could be heard while others flopped around the deck and landed in the make-shift pool. Torafuzar who was inside the ship's control room, ran out to see what was happening and why the machine stopped collecting fish.

"What the hell?!" he shouted. As he looked at the damage to the machine, his walkie talkie began to go off.

 _"Bzzt. Hey Boss!"_ said one captain _"The machine on my end stopped working!"_

 _"Bzzt. Same with mine!"_ said the other into the walkie talkie.

"Yeah," Torafuzar replied into the talkie "mine's down too. I don't know what happened; but this seems like sabotage. Boss ain't gonna be too happy that's for sure, good thing we got plenty of fish anyway. Let's head back." agreeing, all three ships began to take their leave.

Gajeel and Levy watched as the ships took their leave and head back to their main headquarters.

"We did it!" Levy smiled "We stopped them from taking more fish!"

"Yeah," Gajeel commented "but those fuckers got away with the ones they caught." Levy's face turned into a solem look when she remembered that.

"Yeah, they did."

"Shit, old sea dog is gonna kill me! We had to rescue all the fish!"

"Even if we could it would've lead to the exposure of your kind. And who knows what Tartaros would do if they find out Merpeople exist." Gajeel realized Levy had a very good point; if Tartaros found out about them, it would've been possibly game over.

The sun was beginning to go higher into the sky, showing it was around noon. Gajeel let out a sigh.

"We gotta find out what the fuck they're doing soon." he murmured "Cause I ain't liking where this whole thing is going."

"I don't either Gajeel." Levy admitted "But I have a feeling in my gut this isn't good. An unknown substance making the ocean life sick, dumping human waste into the ocean and now taking fish? I would look past the dumping in this situation; but now that they're taking fish just seems way too suspicious to me."

"Hopefully those seahag sisters will have an answer sooner or later. I don't know about you Levy, but I'm sick of the Surface World. I'm heading back." he dove underneath the waters of the ocean, leaving a splash from his tail, getting a few drops of water onto her face and hitting her in the eye a little bit. Deciding she had no choice, Levy followed close by.


	9. Chapter 9

Author's note: Alright, this chapter is going to be more-so a shocker chapter. Enjoy! I apologize to everyone seeing this now. I posted it on Friday; but the website loves screwing with me and it refused to put up I posted a new chapter.

* * *

 _"Have you ever watched a crab on the shore crawling backward in search of the Atlantic Ocean, and missing? That's the way the mind of man operates."- H. L. Mencken_

 **Chapter 9: Conflictions and the Truth about Levy**

Lucy looked out to the skyline from the balcony that was part of her beach house. She eagle-eyed the ocean for some sign of her best friend. She tightened her grip on the railing and looked harder out to the sea. She was surprised when she saw a mug of green tea being gently placed on the railing. She looked up and saw Natsu giving her a solemn smile.

"Figured you'd want this." he admitted. Lucy smiled and wrapped her hands around the mug, feeling the warmth that radiated from it.

"Thanks." she whispered before taking a sip.

"Heard from the police?"

"They said with barely any evidence of where she could've gone, there isn't much they can do." Lucy sighed. Natsu was silent for a moment before looking out to the sea with his girlfriend.

"Wish my dad was here." Natsu admitted "He'd know what to do."

"Considering he's head of Magnolia Police Dept., he probably would."

"Just what are we going to do about this? I would call and ask my dad to have him send a few of his men to help; but since this is out of his district, there's little he can do." Lucy was hesitant for a moment before she came up with a conclusion.

"I guess just scraping the beaches again for some sign of her." Natsu looked at his girlfriend with concern, ever since Levy disappeared she became obsessed with finding her. Don't get him wrong, Levy was his friend too; but he would like to see his girlfriend just take a breather before she became engrossed with this case.

"Lucy," Natsu tried to comfort "It's been almost a week since Levy disappeared. Don't you think we should just try and calm down and let the local police do their job?"

"No. They don't know anything about this! We have to find her ourselves!"

"But don't you think you're becoming obsessed with this?! I know she's your best friend, but eventually we have to draw a li-" he was stopped when Lucy firmly gripped her boyfriend by the shoulders.

"We can never give up." she said with clenched teeth "She's out there! I know she is!" tears began to pour from the blonde's eyes. Her grip soon changed to his shirt and she began to break down. Natsu grabbed his girlfriend and held her tightly against him as she wept into his chest "Oh God Levy, where are you?"

* * *

"They got away?!" Metalicana hollered. Gajeel and Levy returned to the throne room after managing to save most of the schools of fish from whatever Tartaros had contrivanced. While most of the fish got away, a good amount were taken hostage by Tartaros.

"There wasn't much we could do!" Gajeel defended.

"Three hundered fish are now missing because of your carelessness!"

"It was either that or risk the exposure of your people!" Levy bulwarked "If Tartaros got a hold of Gajeel or one of your people, who knows what they could've done!" Metalicana's eyes widened when he actualized that Levy was right. It was one thing that they got their hands on the fish; but if they got their hands on one of his people or Posiden forbid Gajeel, he never would've forgiven himself.

"I agree." he sighed "You did the right thing, if it meant exposing our kind, we had no choice. However, I am not letting this go unpunished." a pregnant silence filled the room "You're to clean the archive room. Reorganize the old missions that have taken place and reorganize them into either successful or failed. Do this and I'll forget about all that happened."

"Are you fu-" Gajeel tried to protest but was interrupted by Levy.

"As you wish your Majesty." she cut. Gajeel was just about to say something, but instead held his tongue. Noticing this scene, Metelicana suddenly smirked.

"Looks like I finally found something to keep ya in line." beamed Metalicana "Maybe I should keep this land-dweller here after all if it means controlling ya."

"Don't get any ideas ya old sea dog." Gajeel hissed "We're going." he pulled Levy's hand and headed straight for the archives.

* * *

The Archives room was nothing but a room filled with file cabinets from floor to ceiling. A good portion of the papers were sticking out of the overstuffed file cabinets.

"My God." Levy aforesaid shocked "How long has this been going on?"

"Probably a few years." opined Gajeel "We haven't had a filing Mer in Posideon knows how long."

"We're gonna be here forever!" Levy suddenly felt her vim drain out of her body.

"Don't be such a guppy." he patted her on the back "I'll take the successful ones, you get the failed. Deal?" she beckoned and then made her way to the failed missions section.

"Let's see.." she murmured to herself "The Prevention of Over Fishing Mission from x689 was a success so that goes to the success pile. The Act of War between both Land and Sea in x737 was a failure..." Levy was looking through all these pieces of paperwork for what seemed like days when it was only three hours. So far, she managed to get a small dent of progress done. There were so many papers and files that needed to be reorganized it was uncanny "Jeez, whatever happened to the old filing Mer, I hope he's happy with where life took him. Ugh, I better get these files over to Gajeel in the successful missions area."

She swam over to a pile of paperwork that she created that were meant for Gajeel to re-file. As she picked it up, her fingers slipped and she dropped all of the papers.

"Damnit!" she grumbled. She bent down to try and clean the papers up when one caught her eye. Levy picked the piece of paper up, not even recognizing this paper. Her eyes skimmed the piece of paper and began to widen as big as saucers.

"Hey Levy!" a voice called out, it was Gajeel of course "Dinner is almost ready, ya coming?" Levy didn't reply "Levy?" still no reply "Hey! Shrimp! What the fuck ya reading?!" she snapped out of her trance and looked at Gajeel in surprise.

"Gajeel," she swallowed "I need you to read this." she handed the Prince the piece of paper she was reading and he began to read it in silence:

 _"_ _ **Year: X768**_

 _ **Operatives: Michael and Elaine McGarden**_

 _ **Mission: Spying on the Surface World. Live as a normal human family and report back to the Kingdom.**_

 _ **Status: Failed. Operatives were killed in an accident in X776.**_

 _ **Other Info: Michael and Elaine gave up their lives as Merpeople and chose to be transformed into Humans for this mission. They have a daughter who is their only surviving relative was also transformed into a Human as well.**_ _"_

Gajeel finished reading the piece of paper before looking at Levy with confusion.

"What the hell is this?" he cross-examined.

"Gajeel," Levy replied "Michael and Elaine McGarden were my parents."


	10. Chapter 10

Author's note: Dun dun dun! Big reveal! Now, time to see what really happened all those years ago!

* * *

 _"We are tied to the ocean. And when we go back to the sea, whether it is to sail or to watch - we are going back from whence we came."- John F. Kennedy_

 **Chapter 10: Secrets of the Deep Sea**

 _It was a simple and beautiful day. The waters were warm, the sunlight creaked from the Surface World into the world of the Mer. A Mermaid sat on her wicker chair in her quaint little home made of coral,pumice and wood from old ships from long ago, silently reading an old novel from the Surface World that was worn to its spine. She could tell the book was loved by its previous owner and it must have been a tragedy when they lost it. The Mermaid had pale skin, a beautiful fan-tail with red scales. Her hair was a beautiful shade of blue and was very messy. Her eyes were a light green color and her chest was considered fairly large (considering she gave birth about a year ago). As she flipped the page from her book, she heard the front door open and shut._

 _"Elaine?" a masculine voice called out "You home?"_

 _"In the Living Room dear!" the Mermaid called Elaine replied. A Merman swam into the room and looked at his wife with a smile on his face._

 _The Merman was a few inches taller then his wife and his skin was slightly darker than hers. His hair was very light in color, possibly platinum blonde with light blue hue, his tail wasn't as magnificent as his wife's; but the scales were yellow in color. He had honey-brown eyes and a tattoo that was the insignia of his kingdom; this Merman was Michael McGarden._

 _"How are you?" Michael asked his loving wife._

 _"Couldn't be better." Elaine replied with a fond smile "I do admit, this book I found is very fascinating. Humans are well versed in telling stories."_

 _"Where's Levy?"_

 _"Taking a nap in her crib, really got tuckered out from our swim this morning. She really loves life here."_

 _"Elaine," Michael sighed "his Royal Highness wants to see us." Elaine sat up and looked at her husband with concern._

 _"For what reasons?" she asked "Did we do something wrong?"_

 _"No, it's the opposite. He has a favor to ask of us."_

 _"A favor?"_

 _"I don't know what it is though." Michael echoed while scratching the back of his neck "All I know is he wishes to see us immediately."_

 _"What about Levy?" Elaine asked with concern in her eyes "She's only a guppy, we can't leave her alone!"_

 _"His Highness has a son around the same age as Levy." Michael reassured "He assured we can let her play with him until it's time to go." Elaine sighed at her husband's words._

 _"Alright," she opined "I'll go wake her up and get her ready. She'll probably be happy, Levy does seem to love making new friends, especially boys."_

 _"Please don't start." Elaine chuckled at her husband's reaction before kissing his cheek, and swimming through a hole in the ceiling that lead to the next floor._

* * *

 _"You want us to live in the Surface World?" Elaine asked King Metalicana. They were now in the Throne Room, staring at their king as he studied their reactions to his request._

 _"It's for a good reason." Metalicana sighed "As much as I hate doing this to you both, I feel you're the only two capable of handling this mission."_

 _"What's the purpose?" Michael queried. The king leaned in his chair and looked at the McGardens with all seriousness._

 _"We believe the Surface World has plans of causing harm to our environment,big ones." the McGardens exchanged glances before looking back at their king._

 _"What makes you surmise all this?" Elaine enjoined._

 _"We're not sure," Metalicana riposted "but the Surface World is a place we know can never trust. We know there isn't much to go by; but you can get us our best leads."_

 _"What about finances? And a home?" Michael asked "We have a life here!"_

 _"We have it covered, we have something called "IDs" made for you both, a home readily available and something called "money" in a place called "the bank"."_

 _"And what about Levy?" Elaine worriedly asked "She's only a year old!"_

 _"Your daughter can come with you. It's best she's with you and you'll also get knowledge on their schooling systems from her too." seeing there was no option, the couple sighed._

 _"We'll do it."_

* * *

 _The Merfamily swam to the Surface World early the very next morning with their one year old cradled in the father's arms. Once they reached their destination, the three made their way to the terra firma. As the family sat on the shore, Elaine pulled out a piece of paper that Grandeeney gave her before they left._

 _"According to Grandeeney," Elaine explained "once I say this spell, we'll be completely human."_

 _"I can't believe this." Michael sighed while bouncing the guppy Levy in his arms._

 _"Promise me we won't ever mention our lives in the sea to Levy, if we do she could blurt it out when she's older." Michael looked at his wife with sincerety._

 _"I promise." Elaine cleared her throat and began to read the spell:_

 _"Oh Posideon of the Sea hear our prayers_

 _take from us three what was once needed but no longer._

 _Replace our tails and give us legs to walk and run._

 _Replace our fins and give us feet to feel the ground beneath us._

 _Replace our scales and give us skin that is smooth._

 _Replace our ability to breathe in water and let us breathe air once and for all."_

 _As Elaine read the spell, a gold aura formed around the McGarden Family and began to change their tails into human legs. Once the aura dissipated, their tails were now replace with a pair of human legs, their lives as Mers were no more._

* * *

"You mean to fucking tell me that Levy was one of us this entire time?!" Gajeel hollered at his father. After finding the piece of paper, Gajeel took Levy to see his father and get an explanation about all of this. Levy was still flabbergasted from everything, just seeing her parents' names on this piece of paper made her begin to wonder about everything in her life; was everything a lie?

"What the hell do you mean she's one of us?!" Metalicana argued back "She's a human, you know this!"

"Well then explain this!" Gajeel held the piece of paper in front of his father who snatched it from his son's hand and read it. Once he finished reading, his eyebrow cocked.

"What about this paper?" Metalicana cross examined.

"Elaine and Michael McGarden were Levy's parents!" Gajeel hissed "She's their daughter!" Metalicana's eyes widened once those words were blurted out.

"This land-dweller is their brat?"

"Damn right she is!" Metalicana's eyes buldged out of his skull.

"Holy shit."

"Yeah! So what the fuck ya old seadog?! What's with Levy?! Why did ya send her parents up there?! Why the fuck did you keep the fact she's one of us hidden?!" Metalicana put the piece of paper onto his lap before letting out a long, exhasperated sigh.

"Elaine and Michael McGarden had lived in the Kingdom since the day they were both born." Metalicana explained "Elaine was a researcher while Michael was one of my guards. After they wedded, they were promoted to the War Divison. Unfortunately, they couldn't do much about spying on the Surface World after Levy over here was born. They wanted their daughter to grow up happy and with both of them around."

"I feel like there's a but in this story." Gajeel grumbled.

"But then came the day we heard about Tartaros. We knew this was going to be suspicious so I asked them both to move to the Surface World and spy on the humans to see what they're up to. They were killed in an accident though. I admit, to this day I regret ever sending them up there. To make up for it, I did what I could to find a way and provide for their daughter, but I never expected their daughter to be right in front of me my entire life. "

Levy stared at the king with surprise and seriousness in her eyes, learning the truth about her parents' pasts did somewhat shake her to the core; but it also eased something on her mind.

"To be honest, I think I always knew." she openly admitted "I never mentioned this but some of my earliest memories, I remember were in water. And when I saw the symbol of your kingdom, I just felt like I knew it from somewhere; but I couldn't remember where." Gajeel made his way over to the shell-shocked Mermaid and placed his hand on her shoulder.

"Are you fine with this shit coming to light?" he asked with concern in his voice.

"I'm fine." she reassured "Mom and Dad did never mention of home, I always figured they weren't happy with where they were from and just didn't want to relive it all."

"I guess this also explains why the hell you can use our people's abilities." Gajeel huffed.

"I think when my son performed the spell on you," Metalicana explained "it woke up your Mermaid abilities."

"So, when Gajeel performed the spell," Levy questioned "does this mean I'm a Mermaid now?"

"No, once the spell that permanetly transforms you human takes place, you're human. What Gajeel placed on you was temporary. If you return to land in a week, you'll be human again." she nodded in understanding.

"Is dinner ready yet?" Levy asked "I think I'm just going to have a light meal and go to bed, this is a lot to digest." She swam out of the Throne room which left Gajeel with a look of heartache etched on his face.

"Something on your mind son?" Metalicana questioned. Gajeel turned to his father, unsure what to say.

"I'm fine." Gajeel scoffed.

"I wouldn't say that." another voice added. They turned to find Lily swimming over to them.

"How fucking long have you been there?!"

"Enough to get the gist of what's going on. You're falling for her." Gajeel's cheeks turned bright red at that accusation.

"W-w-what?!" Gajeel sputtered "No way in hell!"

"It's kinda obvious son." Metalicana added in "The way ya look at her, you seem interested."

"She's a human! I ain't going for a fucking Land-dweller."

"She's technically a Mermaid." Lily pointed out.

"But she's-" Gajeel tried to come up with an argument that showed he wasn't interested in Levy, before sighing and realizing his argument was fruitless "She'll probably not wanna be with a fucking Merman. I mean, ya heard her yourself, she wants a human man. Doubt she'd wanna give her life up there up." Lily placed his hand on Gajeel's shoulder.

"You should try to talk to her." Lily smiled "Tell her how you're feeling." Gajeel cocked an eyebrow to this "I think she likes you too if you want my opinion." seeing as he had no other choice and some what of a gleam of hope appearing in his eyes, Gajeel decided to tell Levy his thoughts after supper.


	11. Chapter 11

Author's note: Ok, time for what everyone here has been waiting for! The lemon! I gotta admit, I haven't done a lemon since _Race for Love_ and this has to be the most...er... "different" type of sex I've ever written. I even did research ahead of time for this!

* * *

 _"I love anything that involves the ocean. Swimming, snorkeling or surfing are all fun, which distracts from your mind that you are actually doing a workout. Being outdoors in the sun and the salt water is great for freeing your mind and feeling alive."- Samantha Stosur_

 **Chapter 11: Stay with Me**

Levy was sitting upright on her bed after dinner that night. Her tail was pulled closer to her chest as she began to think about the events that occoured today. Just knowing that she was born a Mermaid but was forced into Humanity really did somewhat shake her to the core. A piece of her always knew that her parents weren't native to where she grew up, and there was her mother's taste in decor. She began to recall how her mother painted the rooms in their home colors that were related to the ocean and how she had decorations such as fake seashells, dried starfish, nets, light houses or figures of fish. In a way, Levy guessed this all made sense. As she sat there to think, she heard the door creak open. She swam over to the curtains on her bed and gently moved them, seeing Gajeel staring back at her.

"Hey." he maladroited.

"Hey." she replied.

"You mind if I sit with you?" not seeing an issue with this, Levy scooted over and allowed Gajeel to sit right next to her an awkward silence filled the air before Gajeel said something "You ok?"

"I guess." she began to position herself to where she was curled into a ball "It's quite a bit to take in, like I said before, I think I always knew they weren't human. But, I'm not going to let it bother me."

"What do you plan to do when this ends?" Gajeel suddenly asked "When the spell is over I mean." she looked at Gajeel before shrugging her shoulders.

"I guess go back to my life before all this." she admitted "I'm starting college soon, and I already paid for my first semester. So I don't have much of a choice."

"You do know there's another option right?" Gajeel suddenly said. Levy looked up at him in a questioning manner.

"What do you mean there's another option?"

"Y-you could stay here. We could spend every day together, go to places in the ocean only humans could dream of..." Levy looked at the Prince and started to notice he was scratching his back a little uncomfortably and a ruddiness appeared on his cheeks; it was then, Levy put two and two together.

"Gajeel," she needled "are you asking me to stay here?"

"I ain't forcing ya to;" Gajeel admitted "but I got used to you being here." her eyes blinked owlishly and was still abjuring what her ears had just told her, did Gajeel admit he liked her? But her biggest question was, where was this coming from?

"G-Gajeel," she explained "I'm honored you wish for me to stay. Really, I am! But I have a life up in the surface. I have friends waiting for me, I-" Gajeel suddenly cupped her hands into his and looked at her straight in the eye.

"Can't you reconsider? Just say: "Fuck it all?" I promise you that if you do stay, everyday will be exciting. And if you don't, I understand but will do everything in my power to make your life happy." before Levy could even say something, Gajeel pressed his lips against her's.

Levy's eyes expanded when he kissed her. She knew this was a real kiss this time because unlike their last "kiss" there wasn't a warmth coming from it. As he continued, Levy suddenly felt that urge to kiss him back. They held each other tightly as they continued their kiss, Gajeel's tongue began to slither out of his mouth and try to gain entry to her mouth, which Levy happily complied. He shifted his body forward and scooted on top of her into a sexual manner as his tongue fought for dominance over Levy's. His hands began to rake down her body, feeling every single inch before he broke their kiss and latched his lips onto her neck. Licking and sucking at the flesh on her neck, causing Levy to moan and shiver.

"Ahh!" She carped "G-Gajeel!" he stopped his little spree before capturing her lips again and beginning to untie the ties to her orange, clamshell top. He flung the piece of clothing into the air where it landed on the ground, Gajeel looked at Levy who was now binging out into the open, her bare chest. He studied the now hapless Mermaid, admiring her true beauty in this form before latching his lips onto one of her nipples. Levy moaned and mewled as Gajeel rolled the nipple in his mouth until it was completely firm. Her tail flapped in an erotic manner as Gajeel began his assault on her opposite breast. As he did this, he took one of his hands and began to gently squeeze the one he paid attention too earlier.

"Gajeel!" Levy heaved "P-Please!" Gajeel suddenly stopped his little assault and pressed his index finger to her lips, shushing her.

"Posideon you're so hot..." he whispered into her ear before beginning to nibble on it "I gotta have you." he fluttered her body with kisses while she clutched onto strands of his hair as he made his way down. Levy suddenly felt one of Gajeel's digits enter a slit she didn't even know she had. Gajeel began to slip a little bit of his tongue into the slit, which caused Levy to moan and clutch the bed sheets tightly. The Prince continued his assault on the land dweller as she plainted under his power. She felt she was swimming to new heights every second he divulged into her, her core muscles tightening every mili-second, Gajeel's tongue ravashing her most sensitive areas. If this was Heaven, Levy never wanted to leave!

With one flick of his tongue Levy suddenly felt she was soaring high into the sea. Her moans and screams of delight filled the room until she had her full release.

"Fuck, that was sexy!" Gajeel breathed out after his little venture. Before Levy could even come down from her high, she suddenly felt something penetrate its way into that slit; Levy, being the bookworm she was already had a good idea what that was "Damn, you're tight." they sat noiseless for a minute or two, just so Levy could get used to someone of Gajeel's size. After all, it was her first time. Sensing now could be the right moment, Gajeel began to gyrate his hips in a slow movement, causing some slight pain for the the Mermaid, but as the minutes passed, the pain she felt earlier soon turned into pleasure.

"Aaaah!" she squealed "G-Gajeel! Aaah! Aaah!"

He continued moving his hips back and forth in a rhythmic pattern, letting out husky growls hisses every few seconds.

"S-shit Levy!" he cursed, he then hit a very sensitive spot on both him and Levy "F-Fuck!"

"AAAH! AAAH!" Gajeel leaned in closer to the Mermaid, which allowed her to dig her nails into his back, leaving scratch marks. With one final thrust, Gajeel and Levy and finally reached their breaking point and had their full release. They panted out of exhaustion after having their big moment, they looked at each other in the eye and gave one another a loving kiss as Gajeel pulled out of her. He tumbled off of her and suddenly pulled Levy close to him. He then pulled the covers over the two of them, pulled her closer and soon, they were lulled into a deep sleep.

* * *

It was midnight in the undersea palace and Grandeeney was hard at work. She was still studying the substance that Levy had grabbed a sample of a few days ago, trying to figure out every possibility over it.

"You're still up?" Grandeeney heard a voice call out. She looked behind herself to find her sister Porlyuisica, looking at her, a tired expression on her face.

"I wanted to try and find out what this stuff really is." Grandeeney admitted to her sister.

"It ain't easy that's for sure." Porlyusica admitted "I tried every spell on that stuff and barely anything worked." suddenly, it hit Grandeeney.

"Did you use a Pitfall potion and study the results?" Porlyusica looked at her sister.

"I tried earlier, but we ran out of the ingredients," Porlyusica admitted "I swam out and got more but I didn't get around to it." Grandeeney unhesitatingly freestyled her way to the herbal shelf and grabbed the ingeridents needed. She grabbed what was left of the sample Levy nabbed a few days ago and placed it to the side while pouring all the ingredients for the spell into the pot until a redish tinge appeared in the water. Grandeeney took a piece of fish meat that was lying around for experimentation and submerged the meat in the potion. Once completely coated, she took a pair of tongs and pulled the meat out before placing some of the unknown substance on the potion covered meat. The moment the substance touched the meat, a sizzling noise could be heard and a skull and crossbones appeared, burnt in the meat.

"Oh sweet merciful Posideon..." Grandeeney gasped in horror "This is bad news..." Porlyusica swam over to the slab of meat and had the same reaction.

"I haven't seen anything like this before..." she admitted to her sister.

"If this substance falls into the wrong hands, it could cause bodily harm to our entire ecosystem, or worse..." Grandeeney realized "We need to let His Majesty know immediately!" realizing the seriousness of this all, Grandeeney bursted out of the room to find Metalicana.

Mard Geer was at a cave in the outskirts of a town, south from Akane. Miners were digging and pulling out multiple pink crystals from the walls of the cave.

"Soon we'll be able to carry out our plans." Mard Geer smirked as he picked up a crystal that was taken from the cave and clutched it in his hand.


	12. Chapter 12

Author's note: Alright! They did the nasty! And now, it's time to get serious! Hope you all enjoy the chapter!

* * *

 _"You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty."- Mahatma Gandhi_

 **Chapter 12: Just a Little Help from my Friends**

"Your Highness!" Grandeeney salvoed while bursting through the doors of the Throne Room. It was late at night at the Palace, Metalicana looked at the Medicine adviser as she swam down the large room, straight to the Throne to tell her Majesty her discovery "I have news about the samples we collected!"

"What is it?" Metalicana asked with concern "Tell me!" it was at this moment Grandeeney began to explain to Metalicana how she discovered the liquid was a mutagen and could cause great damage to everything around it if fallen into the wrong hands. Metalicana looked at Grandeeney with horror on his face.

"I see," Metalicana sighed "but what do they have in mind with this liquid?"

"I don't know." Grandeeney explained "But whatever they have planned is going to put all of us in grave danger. We need to get the human and the Prince immediately and tell them!" nodding at her suggestion, Metalicana ordered his guards to call Pantherlily in. Within five minutes, Pantherlily swam into the room and up to the throne.

"You called your Highness?" Pantherlily asked.

"I need you to wake Gajeel and Levy." Metalicana ordered "I'd have the guards do so; but it would seem more serious if you did. They need to know the seriousness of the situation we're in." nodding in understanding, Pantherlily swam out of the room to Gajeel and Levy's shared room.

* * *

Pantherlily was right outside the Merman and Human's room. Pantherlily knocked on the door and swam into the room.

"Gajeel, Levy," he began "I just got orders from his Highness and-" he stopped in his tracks when he noticed the two lying in Levy's bed, Levy topless, sound asleep and the obvious aura that they mated was around the room.

"Uh... Gajeel, Levy." Levy suddenly began to stir, her eyes fluttered open to see Pantherlily, staring at her and Gajeel, his eyes wide as saucers. She suddenly remembered her "activities" with Gajeel earlier, clutched the blanket against her chest and screamed so loud it could wake the dead.

"Oi Lev!" hollered Gajeel "What the fuck was that for?!"

"I think she did that because of me." Panterlily pointed out. Gajeel looked up to find his best friend, looking at them in the door way.

"So what the hell ya doing here in the middle of the night?" Gajeel cross-examined.

"Your father." Lily retorted "He wants you both in the Throne room, Grandeeney just got the results for the sample Levy salvaged. From what I was told, it's rather serious."

"Well, I don't think we should waste time." Levy admitted while grabbing her clam-shell top off the floor and tied it up. "Let's go."

* * *

"So that's what that shit is..." Gajeel wheezed in disbelief "Holy Posideon, I never saw that coming." they were all now in the Throne Room, and were just informed about the results of the strange liquid that was retrieved.

"Juvia isn't sure what to do." Juvia admitted.

"I don't think there's anything we can do." Grandeeney admitted "If Tartaros has enough at their disposal, then we could be in big trouble. But if they're throwing it away like you said, then we have a slither of hope."

"It was about a week ago we got that result." Levy explained "They probably figured it out by now!"

"She's right." Juvia realized "We all have to do a Mirror spell, now!" it was then, they all raced to Grandeeney and Porlyusica's wing.

* * *

Grandeeney placed all the ingredients into the cauldron as quickly as she could, she was in a race against time during this moment. If Tartaros knew about the secrets this liquid carried, it could end the entire Mer race and all Marine life as they know it! Once the last ingredient was added, Grandeeney closed her eyes for a moment and then, an image appeared out of thin air, showing a room with pink crystals being melted at volcanic temperatures into a ichorous form. A man with black spiked hair, a large scar on his face, and icy blue eyes watched over the process with a cigar in his mouth.

 _"Get that liquid lacrima into the labs right away!"_ screamed a worker _"Mard Geer wants the tests on the fish to be done immediately!"_

 _"RIght away! !"_ hollered a worker.

 _"If Operation E.N.D is going to take place, we need as much of this crap as we can get! A lot of weird shit has been going on, so we want to get this over with!"_

 _"As you wish sir!"_

The moment they saw that, the image faded away and a silence compassed across the room. The silence was so tense you could cut it with a knife.

"It's worse than we thought." Porlyusica admitted "They know."

"Operation E.N.D?" Levy cross-examined "It sounds suspicious."

"Damn right it does." Gajeel muttered "I say we attack their asses first thing tomorrow!"

"No! If we do it may expose us again! We'll need to get the files for the plan."

"For what?" Gajeel protested "We're better off just flooding their asses or get a fucking levian in!"

"No! If we do that we're more at risk of exposing ourselves! You heard the man in the vision, they're onto us! If we want things to go our way, we're going to need to take a different route!"

"She's right son." Metalicana sighed "We can't risk exposing our people. I can't send anyone who's spying on the land now as we speak or who gave up their rights as a Mer. We may have to wait this out for a little bit." after he said those words, an idea sparked in Levy's brain.

"No," opined Levy "Maybe we don't!" all the Merpeople looked at her in surprise "Your Highness, I know it's heavily against your people's traditions unless it's necessary; but I know a few people who can help us!"

"Can they be trusted?"

"Absolutely! It may scare them at first knowing your kind exists, but they've been my friends for years and there's no one else I could trust more than them! They were there for me when my parents passed." hearing her words, Metalicana gave the girl a smile.

"Then, they are friends of the Kingdom." he smiled.

* * *

Lucy was near a natural pool that was close to the beach house. It was a beautiful fresh water spring that was connected to the ocean through a tunnel deep inside the pool. Lucy remembered being brought to this place as a little girl. It was a place rarely everyone knew about, but it was a place she enjoyed to swim in to this day. The only others who knew about this little spot of Lucy's was Levy, Natsu and Lucy's now, deceased parents. She came here to be alone and think for a moment as well as she watched the sunrise, Levy's sudden disappearance caused her a grave amount of stress and she just needed one moment to herself. It's been close to a week and a half since Levy had disappeared and she was really beginning to grow worried. By now, she would be considered legally dead since she didn't show up; but Lucy wasn't going to give up so easily. She suddenly removed her flip flops and began to walk over to the pool to dip her feet into it.

A chill ran down the woman's spine from the cold water but she toughted it out and let her feet get used to the temperature. As she kick the water a bit, she noticed some bubbles breaking to the surface. She gasped and took her feet out of the water. As far as Lucy knew, there were no creatures that lived in this pool; well then again, it had been about a year or two since she visited this place, something could've moved in by then. Another burst of bubbles hit the surface of the water.

"W-who's there?!" Lucy squeaked. The seconds ticked on the clock as more air bubbles broke through the water until suddenly, Levy's head popped out of the water, looking around the area and spotting her friend.

"Lu-chan?" Levy called out. Lucy's mouth was a gape, she was unable to believe her own eyes at this moment. She then rubbed her eyes, blinked them a few times and realized they were correct.

"Levy?" she gulped "OH MY GOD LEVY! YOU'RE ALIVE!" she raced over to the girl, slipping a little bit but catching herself and hugged her best friend tightly "You had us so worried! Where have you been the whole time?!"

"It's a long story." Levy explained "But the reason you're seeing me now is because I need your's and everyone else's help."

"You can tell us later at the house! Come on, let's get you out of the water and get you back to the house!"

"Actually Lu-chan, I can't."

"What? Why not?"

"There's a reason I need to be in the water-"

"Are you naked or something?" she questioned "We got extra clothes for you back at the beach house!"

"No!" Levy explained "that's not the reason..." Lucy looked at Levy curiously before Levy sighed, took a deep breath and lifted her tail, revealing it to Lucy. Stupefaction hit the blonde as she stared at the orange tail attacted to her best friend with wide eyes.

"Y-Y-you're a-a-a-a-." she tried to sputter the word out but before she could, Gajeel popped up out of the water, right next to Levy.

"Hey Levy," Gajeel grumbled "how long is this gonna fucking take?" his tail popped out of the water for a moment and sent Lucy into greater shock.

"I-i-i-s th-this-"

"Yes Lu-chan," Levy tried to explain "This is the Merman I saw."

"Is blondie ok?" Gajeel asked Levy.

"I think she's-"

 _ **THUD!**_

Gajeel and Levy looked in Lucy's direction and found the blonde lying on the ground, completely unconcious.

"Oh my God Gajeel! We need need to do something quick! I think she fainted!"


	13. Chapter 13

Author's note: This one is going to be long! Let's see how this all goes! P.s, I wanna dedicate this chapter to Piranha-Pk who's birthday is coming up, Happy Birthday girlie!

* * *

 _"Some feel as though the world is their oyster; others feel as though they were the oyster itself, plucked from the ocean, cracked open, and robbed of all that is precious to them." - Joseph B. Wirthlin_

 **Chapter 13: Sneaking In**

"Sooo...You're a Mermaid now?" Natsu put the screws to. After Lucy fainted, Natsu, Erza, Gray, Jet and Droy searched for their missing friend until they found her, along with Levy, Gajeel and now Panther Lily and Juvia. Lucy eventually came too and there, Levy explained to them on how she became a Mermaid in the first place. While everyone was taking this moment to let this info sink in, Natsu was poking at Levy's tail, like a child seeing something unusual for the first time.

"Natsu!" Lucy hissed "Stop poking her tail! I'm sure it hurts!"

"No," Levy admitted "It's more so an annoyance than pain." it was then Natsu was stopped by the Merprince via a punch in the face.

"Quit pokin' her tail pinky!" growled the Prince of the Oceans. Gajeel pulled Levy closer to him in a protective manner which didn't go un-noticed by Lucy.

"How long are you going to be like this?" Gray asked with concern in his voice.

"I have six days left." Levy admitted "Gajeel said the spell lasts two weeks and if I don't leave the water on the sundown of the last day, then it becomes permanent. It will be two weeks I've been like this in six days."

"I see." Erza hummed "But I have a question, why did you wait to contact us until now?"

"It's because it's against Mer Law. I can't have any form of contact with humans unless I gave up my rights as a Mer. Since I was staying with Gajeel, I had to abide by those laws."

"Well if you had to abide by them, why are you breaking them now?" Jet questioned. Levy let out a long sigh.

"It's a long, long story." Levy admitted. It was at that moment, Levy began to tell them about the truth of the "Eco Friendly" company Tartaros. From the moment she first heard of it, to the current events.

"So they want to cause harm to the environment?!" Droy asked in a shocked tone.

"Indeed." Panther Lily specified "Though we have no clue what they have in mind."

"We were hoping you could help us and get the information." Juvia explained "Levy-san and Gajeel-kun can't leave the water at this time, and neither can Panther Lily-san or Juvia."

"What is it you need?" Lucy inquired.

"Information." Levy explained "Tartaros is planning something called Operation E.N.D and from the sounds of it, it's going to be huge."

"I guess the best course of action would be to try and sneak in and get a copy of their plans." Gray thought out loud.

"It would have to be someone they would have little to no suspicions of." Jet pointed out "I'd recommend the person to go in should be female." a pregnant silence passed before Erza stepped forward.

"I'll do it." she stated "I'm the most quick and can act professional when the time calls for it. Besides, I have no big connections to anyone besides my boyfriend Jellal."

"Then I guess Erza's our best bet." Lucy shrugged.

"Alright," Levy explained "try to make it as if you're there for a job interview." Panther Lily suddenly pulled out a satchel he was carrying and gave Erza a vial with a powder in it.

"The powder in this vial will help you have time to get what's necessary." Lily explained "Our herbalists created it; it's a stalwart laxative. No worries, it won't kill them. Although, I should advise you that it is very strong. Just a small tap of it can send you to the bathroom in fifth teen minutes. "

"How much should I give the one who interviews me?" Erza questioned.

"Just put the whole thing in their drink." Panther Lily waved "It works quicker if you use more. With this, you should have about ten minutes to do what you need to do."

"Alright, you can count on me."

Lucy suddenly pulled out her phone and looked up the number to Tartaros, she dialed the number and then handed it to Erza so she could get an interview.

* * *

Tartaros immediately scheduled an interview with Erza when they heard of her wishing for an internship. They set up a meeting at their current base of operations, asking her to keep the facility a secret since "They want to surprise the Media with the fact it was a new water generator building base." Erza arrived at Tartaros' secret building, dressed business wear, eye glasses, a pair of heels and her hair put up in a ponytail. She walked into the building with confidence and a stern look on her face. Mard Geer met with Erza in the front of the building with a fake smile on his face.

"You must be Irene Belserion!" Mard Geer smiled "It's so good to meet you, I'm Mard Geer Tartaros, head of Tartaros Environmental Company!"

"It's a pleasure to meet you." Erza lied with a stern yet pleasurable face, she shook his hand. For this particular situation, Erza decided to use her late mother's name. Even though she never got to know her birth mother (except for knowing she gave her up due to her mental illness and drug usage), Erza felt that her mother was helping out in some way.

"Come with me to my office and we can get your interview started." nodding in agreement, Erza followed Mard Geer into his office where she took a seat across from his desk.

"Can I interest you in some coffee or tea Miss Belserion?" Mard Geer questioned.

"Tea would do just fine thank you." Erza explained while adjusting the glasses on her face. Mard Geer started his coffee maker and made himself some coffee while he brewed a cup of tea for Erza in his microwave. He walked over with both cups and placed them on his desk and then pulled out Erza's file and began to intently read it. While he was focused on her file, Erza pulled out the laxative Lily gave her and quickly poured it in Mard Geer's coffee. Mard Geer sat down while looking at the file of Erza's credentials (a set of credentials that Lucy fortunately managed to fake within an hour) and took a sip of his coffee.

"So Miss Belserion," Mard Geer smiled "you finished High School recently with High Honors?"

"I did indeed." Erza lied "All As and Bs." though Erza did finish school with good grades, she wasn't one for the Honor Roll though.

"And also right here, it says you spent some time in Galuna Island?" Mard Geer questioned.

"It was for volunteer work. I was sent to help the village by providing fresh drinking water and non-perishable foods." it was actually Lucy who went to Galuna Island for volunteer work, Erza was busy with Lacrosse practice around that time if she recalled correctly.

"And you also received multiple college offers?"

"Precisely." Ok, that was probably the only true part on the whole fake credentials.

"Well Miss Belserion, I must say-" Mard Geer smiled when he was suddenly interrupted by an odd gurgling noise that broke through the conversation.

"What was that?" Erza questioned, pretending not to know.

"I-I'm not even sure." Mard Geer suddenly began to clutch his stomach in an uncomfortable fashion "It-its like someone is-" another gurgling noise ripped through the air "Oh God, I-I'll need to excuse myself for a moment Miss Belserion, if you'd be so kind."

"Go ahead." Erza waved "I'll wait." Mard Geer suddenly ran out of his office, with the look of pain on his face and clutching his rear. Once a minute passed, Erza immediately got to work.

She began to search the room for any signs of Operation E.N.D. File cabinets, drawers, even the top of Mard Geer's desk! She soon began her work on the drawers inside his desk and noticed something; one of the drawers was locked.

"I need a key." she muttered to herself. She began to look at all angles of Mard Geer's desk until she came across a key hidden underneath the desk. She grabbed it, crossed her fingers and placed the key into the keyhole. With a quick turn, the desk drawer opened. She quickly pulled it out and found a manila envelope with the title : Operation E.N.D on the front.

 _This is it._ Erza thought to herself. She opened the file quickly and began to read through the files as quickly as possible. Her eyes were filled with horror as she continued reading but realized it was best she stopped now and make copies before Mard Geer returned.

She found a photo copier and quickly made her way over to it, she turned it on, set it up and began to make two copies of all the files in the manila envelope. Once all the copies were printed, she turned the photo copier off, placed the original files back into the envelope in their precise order, placed the envelope back in the drawer, locked the drawer, placed the key back where she found it, sat back down in her original spot and hid the copies she made in her shirt. All in time for a sweating Mard Geer to come back.

"I'm sorry I took so long." he sighed while wiping his face with his tie "I just suddenly fell ill."

"I understand." Erza nodded as she stood up "It's just as well, I need to take my leave. I received a call from my friend and she's in the hospital."

"Oh, is she alright?"

"I'm hoping she is. But I'm going to visit her just in case. I'll be in touch ." Erza shook Mard Geer's hand before leaving Tartaros with a sly grin on her lips.

* * *

"Did you get it?" Levy asked while Erza made her way back to the natural pool.

"Right here." Erza smirked while pulling the papers out of her shirt "And it's quite a bit to chew." she handed the papers to Levy who began to read the papers.

 _"_ _ **OPERATION E.N.D:**_

 _WIth the news that the unknown liquid we recently discovered (Lacrima we decided to call it) has mutation abilities, we managed to find the original source of the "Lacrima" in a cave a few miles away in a crystallized form. We managed to gather enough of the crystals to melt into it's liquefied form and begin running tests on it. Once we gain enough of the liquefied form, we're going to use this on the fish we captured a few days ago and begin to try and mutate them. With the mutated fish, we can learn how to control them and then-"_ the rest of what was written was blank and the rest of the pages were photos that Tartaros took.

"Is there anything else?" Levy queried.

"That's all he wrote." Erza sighed "I have a feeling he didn't finish it before I managed to get a hold of it." Levy passed the documents to Gajeel, who read it as well and then passed it around to everyone else who hasn't read it yet.

"Well whatever they're planning, it's highly illegal." Lucy pointed out "I'm sure maybe 100 laws are being broken."

"Fuck yeah it is." Gajeel grumbled "Good portion of our ocean life is gonna die thanks to these jerkwads."

"We need to bring this to the authorities." Gray said while clutching the papers "They need to be apprehended as soon as possible."

"Juvia agrees with Gray-sama." Juvia added, with a blush on her cheeks while she stared at Gray. A minute passed before an idea came into Natsu's mind.

"We can go to my dad!" Natsu pointed out.

"Natsu, your father isn't districted here. He can't help us!" Lucy explained.

"No, my dad has war buddies he still keeps in touch with. A good portion of them now work for the government!"

"You think they could do something about this?" Jet asked.

"I can take one of the copies to him. He said he was going to meet with one of his war buddies tomorrow night."

"Yeah," Levy realized "not only that this is now something a police department can't handle. I think this is more or less government level now."

"I'll also contact Jellal." Erza stated "He's a private eye, and with this information, he might be able to help."

"So it looks like the best thing we can do at the moment is go to the authorities." Lucy shrugged "Maybe even try to save some of the fish being held hostage."

"I guess so." Levy sighed.

"Welp, I don't know about you land dwellers, but I'm fucking starving." Gajeel sighed while stretching his arms "Come on Levy." he gave her a kiss on the cheek.

"In a minute Gajeel, I just want to catch up with Lu-chan." Gajeel stared at her before shrugging and going underwater.

"Is there something going on between you two?" Lucy suddenly asked out loud. A blush crept up on Levy's cheeks.

"W-what makes you think that?" Levy frivolously asked.

"I don't know... seeing how that Merman with the grey scales was all protectiv-" she stopped herself when she noticed Levy's cheeks turning red as a tomato, she realized it right then and there "Oh my God, you and him did it didn't you?"

"Lucy-"

"I mean yeah, he's good looking I admit it; but how does that work? Is there like some-"

"LUCY!" Levy suddenly let out a long sigh "Alight yes, we did. But, to be honest I don't know how to feel out of all this. A piece of me wants to stay with him but another wants to return to the Sur- I mean our world."

"Just follow your heart Levy." Lucy smiled "When the moment is right, you'll know your answer. But, I'm glad you're alive Levy. I'm really sorry we didn't believe you." a small smile appeared on Levy's lips at that moment.

"Thanks Lu-chan." she smiled "I forgive you."

* * *

Later that day, Natsu was preparing his motorcycle for the journey ahead while Erza was preparing her car.

"Are you sure they'll be able to help?" Lucy asked both Erza and Natsu.

"Jellal has always loved the ocean." Erza smiled "He took me to the beach on our first date, I'm sure he'll want to help."

"Yeah and my dad has his friends who know more about this stuff than us." Natsu smiled before kissing his girlfriend goodbye "I'll call you when I arrive back home." Erza then gave her friend a quick hug.

"I'll contact you as soon as possible." she assured. With that said, Lucy watched as both her friend and boyfriend turned on their respective vehicles and drive away to their destinations.


	14. Chapter 14

Author's note: Not much to say except enjoy!

* * *

" _I have been aware all the time that my peoples, spread far and wide throughout every continent and ocean in the world, were united to support me in the task to which I have now been dedicated with such solemnity."- Queen Elizabeth II_

 **Chapter 14: Captured**

A Merman and his friend were swimming the morning after Gajeel, Levy and their friends met up with Lucy and the gang. They were just mere commoners in Metalicana's kingdom, but this morning was just a simple stroll since a lot was on their minds.

"So did you talk to her?" asked the first Merman.

"Couldn't get the courage." the second one sighed "It's just that every single time I see her, I get all choked up like I got seaweed stuck in my throat."

"Don't worry man, you'll win her over soon. Maybe now wasn't the time."

"But when?! When will it be the time?!"

"Maybe tomorrow! Who knows!"

"I guess you got a po-AAAAARRRUGH!" the Merman screamed in agony.

"Hey!" his friend hollered "What's wrong?!"

The first Merman swam over to his friend and noticed a fish dangling off his arm, but there was something very wrong with this situation; this fish was trying to rip the Merman's arm off.

"Get it off me!" The Merman screamed. His friend made his way over to a nearby rock where a piece of wood was and began to try and pry the fish off. Once he got the fish off, he grabbed it by the tail to prevent it from trying anything else. The second Merman clutched onto his arm in pain "The hell is that thing?!"

"I don't know." said the first Merman "But look at it! Something isn't right!" they both stared at the fish and noticed that this species of fish is normal peaceful and doesn't cause conflict. This one was ghastly, with teeth, a crazed look in it's eye and what may have looked like... _hands?_.

"You're right. We need to get this to His Majesty right away!"

"What about my arm?!"

"The herbalist can treat you! Come on!" with that said, they both swam away to Metalicana's palace.

* * *

"So someone was attacked by a fish?" Levy inquired. She, Gajeel, Juvia, Lily, Grandeeney, Porlyusica and Metalicana were all in the Throne Room. Porlyusica was carrying a cage that had the same rabid fish who attacked the poor Merman and they all looked in horror as it acted like a rabid animal in a cage.

"It's not an ordinary fish...anymore." Porlyusica explained.

"Anymore? What do you mean?"

"We took a sample of it's blood." Grandeeney explained "And we found traces of Lacrima in it's blood." silence filled the air.

"What about the Merman who was injured?" Juvia asked, worried for this poor Merman.

"He's resting comfortably in the infirmary." Porlyusica explained "He's going to need physical therapy; but he should be fine." a sigh of relief escaped everyone's lips hearing this.

"But the lacrima in the blood of this fish," Metalicana pointed out "you know what that means."

"They're starting." Gajeel added.

"Yes, Tartaros has begun to make their move. We have to do something now. If my calculations are correct, if the fish we found was a reject, then they're probably going to go for more."

"My Lord," a guard suddenly spoke out "We just received word that Tartaros is capturing more of our life forms."

"Then the best thing right now is to go and stop them." Metalicana ordered "Gajeel, Levy, Juvia, Lily, go and stop them this instant!"

"Yeah yeah ya old Seadog." Gajeel grumbled.

"Gajeel, this isn't something to be taken lightly. This is getting contemplative, understand you might not even come back!"

"I know. That's why I'm gonna try and end this." the four swam away without a word.

* * *

They arrived at the spot where the fish were being taken. They watched in horror as multiple nets began to pull up several fish.

"We don't have much time." Levy realized "We need to get them out!"

"This won't take long." Gajeel smirked while pulling out his knife. He swam over to the first net and began to cut at the ropes; but it would budge "Damnit! I can't cut the net!" He tried to pull away from the net, but noticed his hand was stuck to it "Shit! I can't move my hand!"

"It's a trap!" Pantherlily realized.

"Juvia thinks they knew we were coming!" Juvia screeched in horror. Without thinking, Levy raced over to Gajeel and began to pull at his back. She pulled and tugged, her tail flapping in the waters as she tried to get Gajeel out of his predicament. The net began rise out of the waters at that moment; they were running out of time.

"Fuck!" he caterwauled "They got some kind of sticky shit on this!" he used the knife to try and cut away the rope until he finally was freed from the piece of rope and tumbled back, landing on top of Levy, watching the fish begin to make their way out of the small opening.

"At least we got them out." Levy breathed as her and Gajeel sat up.

"Juvia is happy to see them free!" smiled Juvia "To hell with Tartaros-AAAHHHH!" she was suddenly swooped up by a net and was beginning to rise to the surface.

"JUVIA!" Pantherlily screamed.

"SOMEONE HELP!" she bellowed while reaching her hand out to her friends. The three waded to Juvia the fastest they could go. Trying to reach their friend and get her out of her predicament; but their efforts were fruitless as she was soon taken to the surface.

"Shit shit shit shit!" Gajeel cursed "They got her!"

"There's still a chance!" Levy realized "Come on!" they raced to the surface and watched as the net that carried Juvia was reaching the eye level of the men. The three made it to the side of the boat and listened carefully.

"What the hell?" a man said out loud "A mermaid?"

"Probably one of those chicks who likes to dress up as one." said another.

"Wait," a third man realized "she's probably the one who's been vandalizing a good portion of our plans!"

"Hey yeah!" said the first voice "Aw man, boss is gonna be thrilled to find out we know who's behind it. Come on, let's get her on the ship." the moment Juvia heard those words, she began to struggle and try to find her way out. She banged and bashed against the net, trying to swing it and hopefully maybe break the rope.

"She's getting relentless!" someone yelled "Tranquilizer her!" a man ran to a nearby tranquilizer gun, loaded it up, aimed it at Juvia and shot her straight in the arm. She continued to struggle and try to get out, but the tranquilizer took full effect and knocked her unconscious.

"No Juvia!" Levy harshly whispered.

"We need to get her!" Lily derisioned. The sound of a boat's engine starting up hummed in the air and the boat began to speed off with Juvia on board. The three Mers swam as fast as they could to save their friend. But it was too late, they were gone and so was Juvia.


	15. Chapter 15

Author's note: Ok, Juvia was kidnapped. Time to get the angry mobs left over from the Gajevy love confession chapter a year ago and go save our favorite ocean blue haired stalker chick! P.S I'm taking next week off because a lot has been going on in my personal life and needed a lot of my attention. _**Trigger Warning: Abuse and or violence towards someone.**_

* * *

 _"I pray to be like the ocean, with soft currents, maybe waves at times. More and more, I want the consistency rather than the highs and the lows."- Drew Barrymore_

 **Chapter 15: The Truth**

"So they took her just like that?!" Gray ulutated. After Juvia was kidnapped, they returned to the Throne Room and told Metalicana the news, once they learned one of their own was captured, they contacted Gray, Lucy, Droy and Jet to give them a heads up on the situation. They were now at the small pool area, discussing the situation.

"No one even saw it coming!" Levy admitted "We all tried saving her, but by the time we could it was too late."

"Do they know she's a Mermaid?" Lucy asked.

"As far as we know, they thought she was one of those "professional" Mermaids or whatever the hell you humans call them." Gajeel grumbled.

"Did you hear from Natsu or Erza yet?" Levy asked.

"Heard from Natsu last night, his dad took immediate interest and got his friends involved," Lucy explained "Erza called this morning and said Jellal is going to try and help. Otherwise we're on our own for this one."

"We have to help Juvia." Lily stated "If they learn she really is a Mermaid, our kind will be in grave danger and worse; Juvia could become an experiment."

"Then I guess the best thing to do is to try and break into Tartaros." Gray admitted "Lucy, you in?"

"I guess so."

"Levy, do you and the rest of the Merpeople have a plan?"

"As of right now," Levy admitted "yes. We're looking to strike by all means, we're planning to use an entire army if necessary; but we won't until one of our own is safe. Besides, we're not fully aware of what Operation E.N.D will be about."

"Don't worry Levy," Lucy beamed "leave this to Gray and I. We'll save Juvia and find out more about Project E.N.D!"

* * *

Juvia was lying on her provided bed, unconscious from the tranquilizer that they sedated her with. Her head pounded like a drum, her body felt copious as well as her eyelids. But she somehow managed to get her eyelids to open and the bright light burnt her sensitive eyes.

"So you're awake." a voice lace with evil smiled "About time." Juvia's eyes swiveled up and laid on none other than Mard Geer "Now Little Mermaid, with your tail gone, I can see there's more to your story than some "Professional" Mermaid."

 _My tail gone?_ Juvia asked herself. She looked to where her tail would normally be, but found a scratchy blanket covering it. She removed it and was shocked to see her beautiful ocean blue tail was now a pair of milky white legs. _Oh no oh no oh no. He knows!_

"Well now that you're aware of your little predicament," sneered Mard Geer "you're going to answer my questions mermaid."

 _Juvia, don't say a single word!_

"Tell me, were you behind the pipe incident?"

Juvia didn't say a single word.

"What about my fishing boats?"

Silence.

"We're you the one behind all this or are there more of your kind?"

Again, silence.

Enraged that she refused to answer, ard Geer lifted his hand and smacked Juvia across the face, knocking her onto the ground.

"You little bitch!" he hissed in anger "You're going to tell me everything even if I have to beat the living shit out of you!" he kicked the young Mermaid in the gut causing her to cough up a little amount of blood and then lifted her by her hair and brought her ear close to him "If you won't talk I'll get my information another way. After all, once my plans are in action, you can say goodbye to your friends if you have any."

 _What does he mean by that?!_ He gave Juvia another swift kick.

"Once Operation E.N.D is in full swing, your kind will be nothing but a blight and maybe even better! I can make a profit off you and your kind!" he grabbed her arm and twisted it "I need to get going Little Mermaid, I'll be back in two hours tops and hopefully you'll be a little more generous to your host." he let Juvia go and made his way out of the room she was being held in.

Juvia clammered her way back onto the provided bed and swung one leg onto the bed before collappsing on it. She let out a small sob from the experience. We're all humans like this? No, Levy was a good example that not all humans were like this. Maybe there's just a few bad ones out there like a few bad Mers. She took a deep breath and did everything in her current state of mind to calm herself down. She looked down at her legs and wiggled the toes on her feet for a moment. It was going to take a little bit of time to get used to since she was someone who perfered life in the ocean than land. As she studied her newfound bottom half, she remembered human women have "certian parts" that needed to be covered.

She quickly grabbed the blanket provided to her and found a small hole in the center of the blanket. With her strength, Juvia ripped a larger hole into the blanked and worked it up until it was past her hips. Now providing her a skirt to cover a good portion of her lower half. Once her little project was finished, she decided to try and get up, get used to walking while try to figure out how to escape.

* * *

Gray and Lucy managed to find their way into Tartaros by disguising their selves as workers. Gray dressed in a security uniform while Lucy wore a lab coat with the Tartaros insignia on the back, just like the other scientists. Both wore a fake ID that would actually get them through security with ease.

"You remember what we planned?" Gray asked the busty blonde.

"Break into the security room, find Juvia, and look more into Project E.N.D." Lucy listed.

"Good. I'll find the security room and look for Juvia, you go and try to find out about Project E.N.D." Lucy nodded at Gray's orders and then the two went their separate ways.

* * *

Gray found the Security room unmanned and began to look at each and every security footage being live streamed right now. He made note that the only rooms that weren't monitored was the bathrooms and all the heads of Tartaros' offices. As he scanned the screens, he found a room with a young voluptuous woman with long, blue wavy hair, a clam shell top and make-shift skirt. Gray watched as she paced around the room and seeked for a way out. Gray had to admit, she was pretty attractive. She had a really nice complexion and her- wait, she was walking?! She was a Mermaid, normally they have tails and everything!

 _Ok, forget the tail thing._ Gray thought to himself _Just grab her and get the hell out of here!_ with that thought in mind, he memorized the room she was being held in, what area of the building it was and made his way there.

* * *

Lucy was walking around Tartaros, looking through a few of the rooms until she could find one that seemed suspicious to her. As she walked through the halls, a scientist spotted her.

"Oh! You must be that new scientist that was supposed to arrive!" A man waltzed his way over to Lucy who was unsure of what to say.

"Uh, yeah I am!" she guiled "So, can you please tell me what I have to do?"

"It's simple really, we need to set up the radar and the main device for Operation E.N.D!" _**that**_ caught Lucy's attention.

"Alright, can you show me the laboratory we're going to be working in please? I'm a little lost."

"Oh we all get like that on our first few days here, you'll find it eventually. Come on, I'll show you the way." He guided Lucy to the destination and when she first laid eyes on the main device, her jaw hit the floor.

* * *

Juvia was sitting in her 'provided' room, staring at her bare feet and trying to envisage a way out of this place. She was suddenly distracted from her thoughts when the door opened and she saw a young man with a security uniform on and another set of clothing in his hands.

"You can play nice with me all you want." Juvia growled "But Juvia will never talk!"

"Who said I was here for that?" the guard chuckled. Juvia was confused at first, but when she saw the guard's face, her distaste turned to pure joy.

"Gray-Sama!" The Mermaid rushed to the human male and hugged him.

"Woah!" he chortled "Someone's happy to see me!"

"Gray-sama came to rescue Juvia!"

"You had us all worried! Everyone has been freaking out so Lucy and I volunteered to rescue you."

"Lucy?"

"Yeah, she wanted to come along as well. We need more information on Operation E.N.D. so she's going to find the information while I went to rescue you."

 _That Lucy must be Juvia's Love Rival!_ Juvia brooded but her thoughts were interrupted when Gray handed her a stack of clothes.

"I got you some extra clothes." he explained "We can't have you running out of here in just that, they'll catch us! I also got you a fake ID to make it as if you work here. Get changed quickly." Juvia nodded and began to remove the make shift skirt and changed her clothing. Gray turned away from the sight and began to look at the corner of the room until he felt Juvia tap his shoulder.

"Ready!" she smiled. he turned around to find the girl in the security uniform, her breast poking out of the top slightly and showing a great amount of her clevage. She placed the provided hat Gray gave her onto her head while tucking in her hair. Gray pulled out a key he snuck out of the guard room and opened the door. He took Juvia's hand and began to run out of the room, only to be stopped by a barrage of guards and Mard Geer. Who had Lucy held hostage.

"Lucy!" Gray hissed.

"So it looks like we have a couple of rats breaking in." smirked Mard Geer "Looks like I was right about you having friends, huh Little Mermaid?" Juvia remained silent the whole time "No matter. It won't be a problem because I'll just keep you three hostage until you tell me everything. After all, I'm going to keep your little blonde friend here because she knows way too much." the moment Gray heard those words, he realized that Lucy managed to learn what was really going on here. He studied this scene carefully and remembered he brought a gun with him incase he needed it. Just when he was about to pull it out, Juvia stood in front of him.

"Gray-Sama." she demanded "Cover your ears."

"What?" blinked Gray "Why?"

"Just do it. And don't worry about Lucy, I have no plans of using this on her." Juvia suddenly took a deep breath, and then let out an ear piercing scream.

Sound waves upon sound waves hit the air and began to shake the building's very foundation. The guards and Mard Geer all clutched their ears in agony except for Lucy, who wasn't affected by it (Juvia made sure that her attack wouldn't harm her allies). Once they were all down, Juvia, Gray and Lucy bolted for the exit and were soon about half a mile away from Tartaros.

"That was close." Gray puffed after running so fast.

"Juvia," Lucy asked "what was that back there?"

"Siren's Echo." Juvia explained "All female Mers can perform it."

"Well it saved our asses. Thanks." Gray smiled and put his arm around the blue haired Mermaid, causing her to blush.

"Guys," Lucy suddenly spoke up "I found Tartaros's main lab and it's worse than we thought." they all looked at Lucy with surprise "Tartaros isn't only experimenting on fish and trying to control them."

"Well, what-else do they plan?" Gray asked.

"Gray, they plan to drain about 10% of the ocean." the look of horror on both Gray and Juvia's faces made Lucy realize how bad this situation was going to get.


	16. Chapter 16

Author's note: Nothing to say except enjoy!

* * *

 _"There's a lot to be said about what's happening to our ocean, big companies polluting it with their oil and all the raw garbage that's being spilled in there."- Lloyd Bridges_

 **Chapter 16: And so it Begins**

"Damnit!" Mard Geer hollered while trying to get the ringing out of his ears that was caused by Juvia's attack "Mermaids! Fucking Mermaids! This whole damn time!"

"It took me by surprise as well sir." Kyouka admitted while writing a few things down on her clipboard. They were in Mard Geer's office, contemplating the entire situation that had played out yesterday. Now knowing that Mermaids existed and were behind the recent attacks against Tartaros really threw Mard Geer for a loop.

"I don't think I should sit here any longer." Mard Geer slammed his fist into the table "It's time Operation E.N.D began! Kyouka, tell the scientists to get the fish prepared a well as Operation E.N.D!"

"As you wish ." Kyouka evilly smirked.

* * *

Kyouka made her way to the laboratory and watched as the men injected devices to the fish they kidnapped's skulls. The fish squirmed and flailed in their large tanks. Kyouka simpered.

"Prepare them." she ordered. The lab technicians nodded at Kyouka's orders and grabbed large syringes filled with pink liquid: Lacrima. They forcefully grabbed a hold of a fish and began to inject the liquid into their main arteries. Once the shot was given, the fish convulsed in pain, as their bodies began to morph. Teeth grew out of their once toothless mouths, arms and legs began to form on a few of the creatures while some developed human-like bodies after a few rounds of bull-growth hormones and three years at the gym. The creatures let out a roar which cracked the glasses of their imprisonment and broke them free. They then stood by theirselves and looked at the humans, waiting for their first orders.

"Time for Tartaros to strike." Kyouka smirked.

* * *

Everyone at the pool was surrounding Juvia, giving her a caress or a peck on the cheek.

"You really had us worried." Levy smiled to the Mermaid.

"Juvia is glad to have been rescued." she smiled. Her friends looked at the forming bruises on her body.

"What happened?" Pantherlily questioned with concern.

"Mard Geer." Gray explained "He beat her to try and get answers about your people out of her." Juvia shedded a few tears before nodding, confirming Gray's story.

"Juvia didn't say a single word." she choked. Levy and Lucy made their way over to the Mermaid and placed a reassuring hand on her shoulders.

"We better get Juvia home." Levy pointed out "She's been through a lot." they then took the Mermaid back to the palace after saying goodbye to Gray, Lucy, Jet and Droy.

* * *

Nightfall arrived soon and the palace was in a deep torpor. Juvia, now bandaged and happy to be home, was snuggled up in her bed under large fluffy blankets, with a plushie that she made of Gray earlier today. King Metalicana was sprawled out on his bed, his crown and scepter near his night stand, snoring away his cares as air bubbles formed in the water. Pantherlily was fast asleep, a stern face on his features and as for Gajeel and Levy? They were both in Gajeel's bed, snuggled close to each other, fast asleep without a care in the world. As Levy's soft snores filled the air, something suddenly woke her from her sleep.

She creaked one eye open and then the other. Her head lifted off the pillow and looked around the room? Levy spotted the clock on the wall and read the time: 5:30 AM. She rubbed her eyes and looked around the dark bedroom. The wall clock was ticking away at every second, while the sea still remained dark at this hour of the night. She wasn't sure why she woke up; but she was pretty sure it was because she heard a rumbling noise in her sleep. Then again, she did have quite a lot on her mind. Today at sundown, she had to get out of the ocean or the spell would be permanent. And now knowing the truth about Operation E.N.D really shook everyone to their core.

Metalicana was shocked at the news once everyone was brought back safely. Now knowing the plans Tartaros had, he was planning an immediate attack on them first thing tomorrow morning. Levy even went as far as to read a few of the books in the library, to hopefully learn something that could help Gajeel and his people. Levy looked down at the sheets and studied the pattern on the bed sheets. She stared at Gajeel who was fast asleep and it brought a smile on her face. The truth was, Levy wanted to stay with Gajeel; but she wasn't sure considering she had obligations back on land. College, a degree she was working towards, a job.

 _But here you're free from all that._ a voice in her head told her _Here, you can be with someone you love, and live a happy life!_ she sat there, unsure for a moment when suddenly, the room shook again. This time, much stronger than before.

"The fuck was that?" a voice grumbled. It was Gajeel, he was disturbed from his sleep by the quake.

"I-I don-" before Levy could finish her sentence, a mutant fish broke into the bed room, swimming his way in and bashing Gajeel straight into the wall, leaving a large crater.

"GAJEEL!" Levy hollered in despair. Desperately trying to get out of his predicament, Gajeel grasped onto the beast's arm, trying to pull the arm right off his throat with as much strength as he could. But his air supply was being cut off to the point his strength was being weakened. Levy wasn't sure of what to do at this point, until she spotted Gajeel's knife on the nightstand. Seeing no other option, she removed the knife from the nightstand, swam as fast as she could and stabbed the beast with all the power she could. She continuously slashed and hacked away at the monster until it fell onto the ground, bleeding out.

Gajeel grasped his throat, gasping for air as much as he could while Levy made her way over to him, and hugged him tightly. The door bursted open with Lily, Juvia and the guards.

"What happened?!" Pantherlily hollered when they bursted in.

"We were attacked." Levy explained "This thing broke into our room and attacked us!" she pointed at the beast lying on the ground and watched as Porlyusica barged into the room and began to examine the remains.

"This fish was mutated." she diagnosed "Not only that, it has something in the base of it's skull. I have a feeling Tartaros sent it here to go after us."

"It looks like we have no choice in the matter." Pantherlily sighed before looking towards the guards "Awake His Majesty. Tell him what's going on and that we're leaving. We're going to try and stop Tartaros once and for all." the guards, hesitant at first, nodded and made their way to the king's room while Gajeel, Levy and Juvia made their way to the battle field.

* * *

The sun was beginning to rise by the time Gajeel, Levy, Juvia and Lily arrived. Ahead of time, they contacted Natsu, Gray, Lucy, Erza, Jet and Droy and warned them about what had recently transpired. When they were closing in to the surface world, they were shocked at what laid ahead of them: An entire army of mutated fish, standing on the shore, waiting to be dispatched.

"My God this is a nightmare!" Levy said with horror filled eyes. They watched as Mard Geer made his way to a stage near by. Mard Geer pulled a remote out of his coat pocket and pressed a large button on it. The moment he pressed he button, a sattelite dish popped out of the roof of the buisness and began to omit a signal into the air. The moment the signal began to omit into the air, the mutated fish began to scream in agony, clutched their heads in pain and then began to rampage.

They crashed and destroyed the town around them, a few dived into the ocean and made their way to Gajeel and the gang.

"It looks like we're going to have to fight." Pantherlily readied.

"Let's kick their asses!" Gajeel hollered beore preparing for battle.

* * *

Lucy and Natsu made their way out of the room and onto the balcony where they witnessed the mutated fish beginning to run rampage on the city. Destroying the homes of everyone who lived there or kept it as a summer home, destroying cars or public property. It was a nightmare.

"Oh my God!" Lucy screeched "They're attackng!"

"We need to get out of here!" Natsu screamed. Natsu then grabbed his girlfriend's extremity and tried to run for it, but something caught Lucy's attention; a satellite on top of Tartaros.

"That must be what's controlling the mutants! If we can get a hold of it, we can destroy it or get them to help us!"

"Well whatever it is, we gotta end this bullshit!"

 _ **CRASH!**_

Natsu and Lucy exchanged glances before making their way to the staircase that lead downstairs.

"Everyone get back!" Erza screamed "Gray to your left!" Erza took a sword Lucy had on display for years and began to use it as her weapon. She slashed and hacked at the enemies in front of her. Somersaulting in the air, and slashed at them while Gray used his Martial Arts skills. Killing them, decapitating them or knocking them unconscious. Thank God that Erza was a master in sword fighting and Gray was a third degree black belt. Once the enemies had met their fate. Lucy and Natsu raced down the staircase to meet with their friends.

"Thank God you're here Erza!" Natsu whined.

"Hey, what about me you idiot?!" Gray hissed.

"You too, brain freeze."

"Ok, before you two start to go at it like cats in a bag," Lucy explained "I spotted a satellite that's on top of Tartaros's building. I think that might be what's causing the mutated fish to act the way they are."

"Well, you must get closer to it." Erza explained "If you and Natsu can get closer to it, then we may end up ending this situation."

"What about you guys?" Natsu asked.

"We can handle things here." Gray smirked while pounding his fist into his hand "We'll fight whatever makes their way here and you both destroy the satellite." Lucy wasn't sure what to say at first, but she soon nodded a nod of thanks to her friends and ran out of the beach house with Natsu, making their way to Tartaros.


	17. Chapter 17

Author's note: We're reaching the series' high point. I'd say this and the next one are the series' high point. Alright, let's check it out!

* * *

 _"The most venomous animal that lives in the ocean is the box jellyfish. And every one of those barbs is sending that venom into this central nervous system. So first I feel like boiling hot oil I've been dipped in. And I'm yelling out, 'Fire! Fire! Fire! Fire! Help me! Somebody help me!' And the next thing is paralysis."- Diana Nyad_

 **Chapter 17: War**

The battle raged on for what felt like centuries. Gajeel fought them with his blade and all his might while Lily summoned a large sword with his magic and swung at the creatures while the girls used their hydrokinesis. But the mutants kept coming at a expeditive pace.

"Damn!" Pantherlily hollered "They're too many!"

"How many fucking fish did these bastards steal?!" challenged Gajeel.

"I'd say close to one hundred, maybe two!" Levy replied while bashing the head of a fish into the ground.

"Juvia doesn't think it's by their will!" yelled Juvia.

"What do you mean?" Pantherlily asked while slashing the throat of a fish.

"Did you see the object Mard Geer was holding?" asked Juvia "It was a device that caused the fish to go crazy! Juvia believes it's hooked to that satellite that recently appeared! If we can get a hold of it or destroy it..."

"We can set them free!" Levy added.

"Exactly!"

"But how are we going to be able to get it from here?!" Gajeel hollered while stabbing one of the mutated fish. Levy looked up and suddenly noticed two figures making their way to the factory: Lucy and Natsu.

* * *

Both Natsu and Lucy were running as fast as their legs could take them. Natsu, being a natural-born runner as well as captain of his high school's cross country and baseball teams while Lucy, wasn't as gifted, but could hold her own. They managed to make it around back of the building, where no one seemed to have been standing guard.

"This is odd." Lucy commented "Why is there no one guarding the back?"

"Probably need as many men as possible if they're going to get Operation E.N.D started." Natsu pointed out.

"Good point Natsu; but I wouldn't put it past Tartaros to use security cameras." Natsu suddenly went through his left pocket and pulled out something Lucy never expected: a gun.

"Where did you get that?!" she yelped.

"Dad gave it to me." Natsu explained "When I told him what was up, he felt they may come after us so he gave me this to keep us safe."

"And you didn't use it back at the house why?!"

"Erza and Gray seemed to have had it under control." Lucy respired at that moment but spotted a hidden camera in the distance.

"Uh, Natsu. I found one." she pointed it out to her boyfriend who shot it in the lens, breaking the camera once and for all.

"Come on, we need to stop them!" Natsu made his way over to a chain link fence that was set up and gave Lucy a boost over it to the other side. She found an abandoned, light crate nearby and tossed it over the fence to her boyfriend, who used it as a method of climbing over the fence.

Tartaros was stationed near a cliff and since they were close to that cliff, the couple leaned against the wall and edged their way around the building. Lucy took a glimpse of the ocean and watched as her best friend and the Mer fought against Tartaros. She took another step against the steep area but suddenly lost her footing. The earth underneath her crumbled a bit and took her pink flipflop with it. Natsu quickly grabbed his girlfriend's arm out of instinct in order to keep her safe.

"Thanks." Lucy smiled to her boyfriend.

"Just doing my job." he chuckled. As she smiled, she looked to what was ahead and found a ladder in the distance.

"Looks like that's our way up." she edged her way closer to the ladder before grabbing it, letting it slide down a bit and climb her way to the top with Natsu tailing behind.

* * *

They made it to the top where the satellite dish was installed but eluded a bullet that was heading straight for them. The couple looked up to find Keith, head of Tartaros's Technology Department, flyspecking his gun at them.

"Seems to me we got some Mer Sympathizers." Keith said in a dreary tone. His face covered in a skull tattoo "You know what we do with your kind..." he began to pull the trigger when someone hit Keith in the back of the head.

 _BASH!_

Keith fell onto the ground like a mighty oak tree, completely out cold. The teen couple looked up to find Silver staring down at Keith with a smirk.

"Been wanting to do that for years." Silver smirked. He inspected the blonde and pink haired teens and recognized their faces "You're Gray's friends right? Natsu and Lucy." they exchanged glances at that moment.

"Who are you?" Lucy asked in a serious tone.

"You don't recognize me?" Silver laughed "Well, it has been a few years I guess. But I used to drive you kids to soccer practice!" it suddenly dawned on Natsu.

"Silver?" Natsu recognized "Silver Fullbuster?!"

"Good to see ya kids!" it hit Lucy at that moment.

"Holy shit." Lucy cursed "But what are you doing here? We thought you left Gray and his mother!"

"I never left." Silver smirked. He then pulled a wallet like item out of his pocket and flashed to the kids: CIA "I've been undercover for three years. I had to have little to no contact with my family because I could blow my cover. Gray, is he ok?"

"He's back at the house with Erza, fighting off the mutants." Lucy assured "He'll be thrilled to see you once he gets an explanation." a smile appeared on Silver's features.

"Come on, let's shut this thing down!"

"You know how to work it?" Cross-examined Natsu.

"I saw Keith playing with it when we were setting it up. He punched in a password and fortunately, I remember it."

Silver typed in the password on the satellite's computer which accepted it immediately. He continued working through the piece of technology until he found what was needed.

"Bingo." he smirked. Silver clicked on the button on the screen and it began to shut down the signal being sent to the mutants "Bam!"

* * *

Gajeel, Levy, Juvia and Lily were in the midst of their battle when suddenly, the mutants stopped, and began to swim around as if the fight never happened; Levy suddenly realized what this meant.

"I think Natsu and Lucy were successful. " Pantherlily smirked. Mard Geer, who was on the shore, realized that the fish had stopped listening to his command and looked up at the building to find Natsu, Lucy and Silver giving him taunting looks, and Natsu, giving Mard Geer a one-fingered salute.

"Damn that Silver!" Mard Geer bellowed "I knew he was up to no good he moment he joined us!"

"Then why the hell you let him?" Gajeel questioned "Sounds like a fault on your side."

"Uh...Gajeel." Levy tried to stop.

Mard Geer's face twisted into something that he never made once in his life; he was pissed.

"I've had it with you freaks of nature!" he hollered. He pulled out his walkie talkie and hollered in it: "Commence Operation E.N.D. RIGHT NOW!" he turned the walkie talkie off and right there and then, the terrain and sea began to shake.

"The hell is happening?!" Gajeel yelled.

"It's Operation E.N.D!" Juvia screamed. They watched as a giant hose that was attached to a large machine appeared out of Tartaros, beginning to make its way around the ocean and drain the water while trying to keep the area around it dry.

The four were going to make their way towards the machine when Mard Geer shot a bullet at them.

"I don't think so." he smirked "You still have me to deal with. He then pulled out of his shirt pocket an industrial syringe. He took the syringe and stabbed himself in the jugular, letting it's contents spill into his bloodstream.

"Oh shit." the four Mers said in unison. They watched as Mard Geer's skin began to bubble and he clutched onto his stomach in pain. The color and texture of his skin morphed into a rough black color, a pair of bat-like wings appeared out of his back, his head and face changed into something monstrous while his ponytail stayed. He was officially mutated by the lacrima.

"Lily! Juvia!" Gajeel hollered "Go stop E.N.D! Levy and I will handle him!"

"Oh no you won't!" yelled Mard Geer with a demonic voice. He made his way at a fast pace to go after Juvia and Lily, but Gajeel prevented him by slashing him in the chest. Gajeel knew that at this moment, this was the final battle he needed to face.


	18. Chapter 18

Author's note: Here we go! Chapter 18! Let's do this!

* * *

 _"If we wipe out the fish, the oceans are going to die. If the oceans die, we die. We can't live on this planet with a dead ocean."- Paul Watson_

 **Chapter 18: Operation E.N.D.**

The contraption that Tartaros created walked heavy footed through the ocean waters as it began to drain every single drop out of this great and majestic creation of God. Pantherlily and Juvia were swimming as fast as their fins could take them. They needed to get a good look at the machine that was reaving havoc all over the ocean while Gajeel and Levy fought against Mard Geer. Once the Prince of the sea's closest friends made it, they stared at the machine with determination and a look that showed they were excogitating it.

"It's larger than I imagined." Lily admitted to Juvia "It also seems to be evaporating the water when it filters into the machine."

"What will we do?" Juvia queried, uncertian if she was up for the task.

"We need to find it's weak point. Like everything, there's something in it that causes it to become weak and defenseless." Juvia looked harder at the machine and noticed the joints in it's "legs" and the hose itself.

"Juvia thinks we should attack the joints!" she pointed out "If we can destroy the legs, we can prevent it from moving, and taking a large object it can't take in, it will prevent the hose from working!" his eyes widened when she said that.

"Juvia!" Pantherlily smiled "That's brilliant!"

"Juvia also thinks she can use her Siren's Song to attack the part that evaporates the water."

"If it can work, then we're saving a ton of lives. I hope it does."

* * *

Gajeel and Levy were in the fight of their lives. It seemed to be Mard Geer was very fast at learning about his new form. He flew high into the sky and would dive deep into the ocean so he could attack the Mers. Levy used her hydrokinisis to the best of her ability to try and seize Mard Geer's attacks or try to end this madness; but he was too strong for them to handle.

 _Posideon-damnit!_ Gajeel internally screamed _He's too strong! At this rate, we'll never beat him!_ Mard Geer then took another hit at Gajeel and Levy, causing Levy to gain a nasty gash on her arm and Gajeel to cough up a little blood. Gajeel tried using his hydrokinisis to projectile himself at Mard Geer and to stab him with his sword; only to have him dodge and stab Gajeel in the abdomen. Gajeel immediately fell back into the water with pain etched on his face, but fortunately, Levy had a potion Porlyusica gave them for healing and handed Gajeel the potion. He took a sip which automatically healed his wounds. Mard Geer soared into the air and looked down on the Mers with disgust.

"Your kind is an abomination." Mard Geer voiced "You've done nothing but stand in the ways of my plans."

"You're nothing but a disgrace to humans!" Levy yelled in anger at Mard Geer "You've commited so many hanus crimes that you could kill everything and everyone! Did you even think for one second that all of this could come back to bite you? That you could actually get away with this?! You do realize that most of our life comes from the ocean, and destroying it will kill maybe even you?!"

"You know nothing!" Mard Geer yelled before suddenly clutching the side of his head "Man kind doesn't need the ocean! We as humans evolved passed the need for nature!"

They watched as he suddenly clutched his stomach in pain; this didn't go unnoticed by Gajeel.

"You see this shit?" he asked Levy.

"The Lacrima is causing him intense pain." Levy realized "I think he really didn't know the extent of what it could do to humans."

"We could take advantage of that." they thought about that before Mard Geer lunged at them again.

* * *

Juvia was using her hydro-kinesis to the best of her abilities. She was taking sea water in large blobs and surrounding the joints of the legs with the sea water. She then took the water that she was levitating and froze them, stopping the machine in place while Lily managed to find a large boulder nearby and use it to clog the pipe that was taking in the sea water. While the pipe did it's best to try and try to unclog the object in it's way.

"NOW LILY!" Juvia hollered at the Prince's best friend

Lily took this moment as an opportunity to take his sword and lunge it at the heater that evaporated the sea water. It stabbed the heater and caused a few sparks to begin to ignite and the machine malfunctioned. It was right then and there, E.N.D fell onto its "knees" and landed into the ocean, creating a mass explosion that was mainly covered by the water. The two Mer smiled with happiness at this moment; Operation E.N.D was terminated.

* * *

The waves from the explosion hit the nearby battle, causing unnatural waves. The three, who were in the midst of their battle, which was put on pause the moment they felt the shock waves. They looked to their left and noticed E.N.D was gone.

"No.." Mard Geer breathed "Impossible! My plan! GAAAAARRRGGGHHH!" he suddenly clutched his head again in pain.

"Gajeel!" Levy hollered "Now's your chance!" she used her hydrokinesis to projectile Gajeel who took this opportunity to be lunged into the air, pull out his weapon and stab Mard Geer in the shoulder, causing a massive amount of blood to spurt out of him and then, he fell right out of the sky into the water along with Gajeel.

Levy watched the scene unfold, frozen in fear until Gajeel popped his head out of the water and swam over to her unscathed. Relief washed over Levy like fresh rain when she saw Gajeel again.

"Gajeel!" Levy smiled.

"Bastard's drowning down to the bottom." Gajeel smirked "Good riddance." he began to hold Levy's hands and lean in to kiss her when something caught his eye; the beginning of a setting sun "SHIT! Levy, isn't today the final day?!" when she realized what he was getting at, Levy began to panic.

"Oh my God! The setting sun! The spell's going to wear off!"

"You need to get on land!" he noticed a large wall of rocks nearby that lead to dry land, it was the best thing he could find right now.

"Come on!" he lead her to the area and helped her onto the rocks "Once you start making your way up, the spell will wear off. You'll be a human again." hearing those words, Levy gave Gajeel an uncertian look.

"Gajeel," she asked "are you sure about this?"

"This is what ya want isn't it? To be back with everyone ya care about? You did our people a pretty fucking great thing and we ain't gonna forget it." She still looked at Gajeel with uncertainty "Hey, I still wanna keep in touch. I ain't letting go of ya that easily." he leaned in and gave her a kiss on the cheek. Just when Levy was about to say something in return, her tail began to glow a golden aura; the spell was beginning to wear off "GO!"

Levy began to climb her way to the top of the rocks, feeling her legs beginning to return slowly as she climbed higher and higher. She was grateful she hada lot of upper arm strength because this made the climb a bit easier on her. She would look back every minute or two at Gajeel who was watching her leave and would smile at her as she climbed up and would look at him. A piece of Levy felt truly uncomfortable with doing this, at first she wanted to go home so badly; but as time went on she grew so close to Gajeel that she never wanted their time together to end. Closer to the top she got as the sun continued to set and she could feel her legs returning more and more. When she looked at Gajeel one more time, she noticed bubbles coming from the sea. Sudden realization hit Levy as to what it could be.

"Gajeel-" she yelled but was cut off when Mard Geer who returned to normal popped out of the water with a metal syringe filled with liquid lacrima and was holding Gajeel hostage.

"Make one move at me and I'll inject him!" Mard Geer threatened "I don't know what this shit does to your kind, but I'll be damned if it won't get me to where I need to be!" Levy looked on with horror and was about to make her move when Gajeel stopped her.

"Levy no!" he hollered "Get out of here! I can handle myself! You need to regain your humanity! You'll never get it back if you go back into the ocean!" she looked at this scene with uncertianty and then a question hit her mind: Which was more important? The man she loved? Or her humanity? Feeling the answer come to her and noticing her legs still had a bit to go before returning to normal, Levy did what she had to do; she dove right back into the ocean.


	19. Chapter 19

Author's note: Here we go, the second to last chapter! This is going to be a big moment for everyone and it will change everything for the better! I do want to give a heads up ahead of time before I introduce this chapter. I am not 100% sure if I will be able to post the final chapter exactly next week. My family and I have been preparing to move for about two years and sometime next week will be moving day. We will be moving out of state and I won't have direct internet until we can find a provider. I don't know how long it will take but I believe it will be about a few days maybe a week or two. Also, I'm going to have a bit of unpacking to do and try to get all my belonging in order... enough about me, enjoy the chapter!

* * *

 _"Sometimes, you might meet somebody that you love that's turning into a 'they.' My key is invite them to Miami and take them to the ocean and let them jump off the boat in the ocean, on the sand bar, and cleanse off and pray and then go take a shower, and hopefully the 'they' is out of you."- DJ Khaled_

 **Chapter 19: A Changing Sunset**

 _SPLASH!_

The sound of Levy's submergence back into the ocean filled the air with a stunned silence. Gajeel looked on in horror.

 _What the hell are you thinking Levy?!_ Gajeel internally screamed. The light from the spell wearing off disappeared the moment she touched the water, leaving small ripples in the calm ocean. Before either Gajeel or Mard Geer could blink, the water began to spume and glow a golden color.

They were both unsure what this could mean at first until suddenly, a vortex of water appeared where Levy had dove and soon, a large tower made of water appeared and Levy was the one controlling it. But there was one thing that caught Gajeel's attention the most; her tail had returned.

 _Levy..._ Gajeel thought to himself. He watched as Levy took a deep breath, filling her diaphragm with air before letting out a something Gajeel never expected: Siren's Song.

"No fucking way.." Gajeel breathed.

When the tune hit Gajeel's ears, he knew this particular Siren's Song; _The Song of the Leviathan._ A deadly tune that would summon The King Of Sea Beasts: The Leviathan. Only Mermaids who can hit the highest notes in this song, actually succeed in summoning The Leviathan. And right now, she's succeeding! Just where in Neptune's great ocean did she learn how to perform this song?! As Levy continued the melody, the ocean began to ripple and a vortex began to appear. Inside the vortex, The Leviathan emerged out of the water, with a look of hunger in it's eye. Knowing where this was going to go, Gajeel broke away from Mard Geer's grasp as fast as possible and swam right behind Levy.

Mard Geer glanced up above himself and his face became etched with horror; this thing was a monster, tall and deep sea green, spikes and scales coming out of it's body, long yellow teeth, gills, red fierce eyes. With one fair swoop of her finger, Levy finished her tune and pointed at Mard Geer to the Leviathan. It let out a roar of delight at it's meal before swooping down, grabbing Mard Geer and then proceeded to chomp on him, swallowed him whole and letting out a small bletch of satisfaction. The Leviathan then turned around and made it's way back to it's home, deep in the ocean, making Mard Geer Tartaros no more.

"Holy shit." Gajeel mouthed. Levy at that moment made her way down back into the ocean and swam over to Gajeel "Levy, what the fuck are you still doing in here?! You need to get out of the ocean-" he was cut off when Levy gave him a firm, yet passionate kiss on the lips.

"I'm not going anywhere Gajeel." Levy smiled after breaking the kiss "I want to stay with you." hearing her words made Gajeel feel over the moon. He pulled her closer to him and gave her the most passionate kiss he could ever muster up in his life time. All in time for the sun to fully set and the spell to take permanent effect.

* * *

Twilight soon set in and multiple cop cars as well as federal cars surrounded Tartaros. Multiple members of the company were handcuffed and put into the cars, the liquid lacrima being taken by the government. Igneel Dragneel, Chief of Magnolia Police Department and War Veteran was watching over the arrests and seizing of evidence that would be needed. Natsu, Lucy and Silver made their way over to the police chief, panting and out of breath.

"There you are Natsu!" smiled Igneel "Lucy you look well, and... _Silver?_ " the two fathers came face to face with each other at that moment "I haven't seen you in years."

"Under cover shit." Silver commented while shrugging his shoulders. Just as he said that, a car that was carrying Gray, Erza, Jet and Droy arrived to check out the scene.

"Is everything ok?" Erza asked with a hint of worry in her voice.

"Everything's fine." Igneel smirked "We managed to 'round them all up and a few of them offered to testify against their superiors for lesser charges."

"This is going to be quite a show." Gray mused.

"I can agree with that." Silver mused with his son. it was at that moment Gray realized his father was there. He hasn't seen him in over three years so it was quite a shock. But right now, Lucy wasn't focused on the sudden Father/Son reunion. She was focused on the pair of Mer tails that popped out of the calm ocean. She motioned to her boyfriend and their friends while Gray was left to converse with his father and made their way to where the Mercouple were.

"Levy!" Lucy called out. The Mers heard Lucy's call and made their way over to the humans "Is everything ok?! Y-your tail-"

"It's ok Lucy." Levy eased "I decided to stay in the ocean with Gajeel." a look of disappointment hit everyone except the Mers at that moment.

"Y-you are?" Lucy asked surprised.

"I was hesitant at first; but I realized how much I love Gajeel. And how much I truly want to be with him." she intertwined her fingers with Gajeel's at that moment.

"If he makes you happy, then I have to accept it. I just hope you can come visit or we can come visit." Levy smiled at her best friend's words before hugging her tightly.

"I love you Lu-chan." Levy whispered.

"I love you too." Lucy replied while shedding a single tear. After the girls shared their hug, the Merprince shook everyone's hands as a sign of good will and thanks before leaving with his newfound girlfriend.


	20. Chapter 20

**Author's note:** Here we are! The last chapter of Ocean's Tides! Thank you so much for all the great support, fanart and rave reviews! I'm eternally grateful! I was expecting to post the chapter this coming monday, but fortunately the new town I reside in's library has internet so I managed to sneak on and get it uploded!

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 _"Together we can face any challenges as deep as the ocean and as high as the sky."- Sonia Gandhi_

 **Chapter 20: Epilogue**

A week had passed since the end of Tartaros Co., and things couldn't get better. Since most of Tartaros was arrested, the government began to work towards infiltrating every Tartaros factory in the country. They learned that they had been doing illegal dumping and multiple other offenses since the beginning of the company five years ago. Without Mard Geer, Kyouka seized control of the company and now sinceshe had just as much of a hand in this matter, she was facing the most charges.

Those who witnessed what occoured weren't really sure what had truly happened that day. A lot of people witnessed Mard Geer turn into a winged monster, many witnessed Operation E.N.D occour, some even witnessed the mutated sea creatures running amok on the land. The government tried to sweep the little masquerade under the rug; but because of people knowing what they saw and knowing Tartaros was behind it, they sued Tartaros for everything they had plus damages and now, they were in a massive financial debt and were forced to close their doors forever.

Lucy and the gang were being hailed heroes in the local paper. After the situation involving Tartaros took place, a nosy reporter found out about how Tartaros was discovered to have been doing what they were doing and wrote an outstanding article on the teens, hailing them heroes and that their actions saved thousands of innocent lives. Erza was enjoying the limelight quite a bit while the rest just weren't so sure about it. Hell, Gray kept getting so many interview calls he had to get a new phone number it was so bad.

As for Levy and Gajeel? Well, since news struck the kingdom that the human who was helping their kingdom stay thriving was going to stay, there were mixed feelings. Some ssupported the idea and the relationship between her and their Crowned Prince while others felt their Prince could find better and she should've gone home. The truth was about all this: Gajeel didn't give a shit. He loved Levy and wanted her to be his Queen for when he takes the throne. Now that she was going to be the next Queen, Levy was now going to have to take lessons until the wedding and her coronation. But there was something that made Levy feel as if there was something in her life that was missing something. No, dont get her wrong, she was happy with her new life; but she kinda missed her old life.

One morning, Levy was reading one of the novels found in the library about the history of her newfound kingdom and how it came to be. But truth be told, her heart wasn't into it.

"Something on your mind Lev?" a voice rang out. She looked behind herself to see her new fiance looking at her with concern.

"It's nothing." Levy tried to wave.

"Has to be, cause you've been on the same fuckng page since you started the damn book." She looked at the book and realized he was right; she's been on the same page the whole time! Was it that noticable? Maybe she should be honest with him, after all that's what made her parent's have a good marriage.

"Well," she confessed while closing the book "I kinda miss my life on the surface. Don't get me wrong, I love it here; but-"

"You want to be able to see your friends." Gajeel continued.

"Exactly. The Summer festival is coming up and I wanted to go with you as a date. But considering our conditions..." Gajeel suddenly pressed his index finger against his future bride's lips.

"Come with me. You need to see this." she was confused at first; but didn't question Gajeel's motives. He took her by the hand and led her out of the palace.

* * *

Two hours passed and they were closing in to the surface world. When their heads popped out of the ocean and looked around the location, she couldn't believe her eyes when she spotted Akane Beach without any people on it.

"Why are we here?" Levy cross-examined.

"C'mon," Gajeel ordered while gently guiding her "We're going on the beach." her eyes buldged out of her skull at his words.

"W-what?! Gajeel, what if someone see's us?!"

"They won't. I know a good spot. Come on." he guided Levy over to a pile of rocks that was normally avoided by tourists. Gajeel lifted himself out of the water and helped Levy out, then they both began to crawl more inland until theyw ere away from the water.

"Why are we here Gajeel?" Levy piped "I mean, we can't be on land-" she stoped watched as a light blue glow surrounded both hers and Gajeel's tails. The light grew brighter and brighter until it was blinding. Then, the light subsided and Levy couldn't believe her eyes; her legs have returned.

"W-what? How?!"

"It's part of our species." Gajeel explained, showing Levy that he too got a pair of legs. If a Mer leaves the ocean without performing a transformation spell, their tail turns into legs. But we can't be without any form of water for 48 hours or we die. Trust me, I keep a bottle of water on me when I go on land."

"And you didn't transform when we were going against Tartaros why?"

"Wasn't necessary." Gajeel shrugged.

"Wasn't necessary?! It could've saved us so muc-" her ranting was cut off by Gajeel passionately kissing her.

He broke away from the kiss and looked at Levy with a smirk.

"I got us a pair of pants, some and that underwear shit those humans love so much hidden nearby so we can use them." He went over to the hiding spot and pulled out some women's undergarments in Levy's size, some clothes in her size and clothes for himself. Once they were dressed, Levy suddenly realized something.

"Hey," she asked "How do you know my underwear and bra size?" Gajeel just smirked.

"Gajeel?" He let out a laugh.

"Gajeel!" it was then Gajeel began to walk away from the scene while Levy tried going after him and bombarding him with questions while the ocean's tides continued coming in and out.

 _ **The End.**_


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